Eight-year-old Lela can't understand why her older sister, Jolene, picked her up right from school. At first it was exciting to have Jolene get out of her boyfriend Glenn's car, in front of all the other kids, but now all three of them are driving through the desert, and Lela wants to know why they didn't stop to tell their mother where they were going. "We can't take you back there, and that's all there is to it," Jolene says.

Jolene is desperate to protect Lela from their sexually abusive father, but it is too late. He discovers Jolene's plans and ends up murdering their mother. Their world is shattered, and Lela's childhood innocence is lost. She joins a loving, adoptive family and buries all memories of her former life - even her last memory of Jolene, pledging in a courtroom that she will come back for her someday.