A middle-aged, single, hairdresser spends the day spreading gossip from client to client. She ends her busy day with an ultimate act of meddling.

A local detective investigates the murder of a businessman who returned to town after years of being away. The detective holds a conflict of interest in the case: his sister was swindled years ago by the victim.

When the decision to build a new integrated school falls into the hands of an elderly woman, a small Tennessee town grows desperate to escape the control of her family, which has historically worked to prohibit progress and change.

A teenage girl is ensnared in a romantic relationship with her teacher at the same time her aunt's rapist, newly released, moves back into his house next to hers. When two teenage sisters discover a purse near the house of a recently released rapist, they begin to investigate their family's dark history of sexual assault, and a kindly English teacher turns out to more than he appears.

When a farmer proposes a year-long vacation to his wife and son, they each go their separate ways until his personal plans become an embarrassment to the whole family.