Charlie Boone's life in the West Virginia coal town of Paradise is tough. Her drunken daddy is out of work, in big trouble with mine management, and her soon to be step-mama is one ruby slipper away from wicked witch. Folks in town disapprove of Charlie's relationship with handsome Henry Henkel, but when he gives her a Catahoula puppy she loved at first sight, she's sure better times are ahead. When terror, tragedy, and a jungle war separate Charlie and Henry and people tell her to move on she can't... and it's up to her dog Patches to lead them to a future neither one imagined.