Madelyn Arnold

Brilliant, tomboyish Josephine Margaret Butler-better known as Jos-is the second oldest child in a large, poor family living in provincial Summit, Kentucky, in 1963. After her mother has a miscarriage and retreats into herself, Jos and her sister Ellie are faced with the responsibility of running the household and taking care of their siblings and their decidedly eccentric, sometimes brilliant, and always difficult father. The nation's mounting tensions over civil rights and the Vietnam War finally begin to infiltrate Summit at the same time that Jos begins to act upon her secret passion for women. During the course of this eventful year, Jos realizes that only one thing-her intellect-can provide escape from the stifling family dynamic and small town in which she is trapped.