In the 1980s in Summersville, West Virginia, a town with a dying coal industry and a burgeoning tourism industry, a whitewater rafting accident results in the death of a high school aged girl and her father. The tour guide responsible becomes mad with grief and obsession; a year later, when he tells a story of what really happened that day, it's unclear what's reality and what's fiction.

A travelling tool salesman arrives on the property of a poor farmer in rural mountain country and lies about his background and the quality of product to secure the sale. He meets a tragic end when his scheming is revealed, angering the prospect and his twin sons.