In 1958, nine year old Denny Gunderson's parents are killed in a car accident leaving her older sister, Judy, to raise her. Judy berates Denny throughout her preadolescent and adolescent years - instilling in her that she is unloved, indecent, and will never amount to anything. At the age of seventeen, Denny becomes pregnancy by her high school sweetheart, Ray Collins and finds Judy's prophecy of her to be correct - so she thinks; treated like a fallen woman by everyone except her best friend, Rhonda and her mother.
Hiding her shame in The Meadow Ridge Home, a residence for unwed mothers, Denny gives birth, but afterwards heads on a downward spiral; a direct result of her shame, the pain of giving up her child, and her pent up anger towards Judy, Ray, and society in general.
In her desperate state, she experiences hope and believes it was not by coincidence that this encounter happened. She decides to rid herself of the paralyzing demons of her past that keep her from going forward with her life.