Life in rural Holt County, Missouri is becoming complicated and unsettled as residents resist a school merger that is threatening their way of life. It is 1966 and America is changing. You see it in the fashions, hear it in the music, in the social mores and in the disturbing new ideas surfacing. Even steadfast rural Missouri cannot escape change and it comes in the form of a bitterly contested school consolidation mandate. Every little community in the county has a school. Students are surrounded by warmth and enthusiasm from adults who are dedicated to their education, proud of their achievements, and invested in their successes. Now, outsiders want to change it all. Young people are thrust into the eye of an emotional maelstrom as the small towns hold on for dear life to keep from losing their beloved schools.