The blazing hot, dry summer seems endless for fourteen-year-old girl, Dutch Peyton. Life had always been pretty good, but now things are changing, and the drought isn't Dutch's only concern. When her sophisticated, beautiful cousin Norma comes to visit, she's not sure how to handle her. Norma, on the other hand, is determined to teach Dutch all she knows about life and love.

But Dutch doesn't want her cousin's advice. It hasn't helped her figure out what she's feeling for classmate Ethan Cole. And it can't relieve the drought that is destroying her family's tobacco crop as well as their morale. Will the Dixie storm so desperately needed by the parched land be enough to wash away Dutch's troubles too?