12-year-old Coby is navigating a complicated world.

It's summer in 1980s Texas, and Coby heads to work with his dad, B.B., a logger. At the logging site, Coby is thrust headlong into a fight for the forest and its spirit, for his family, and for his own dignity. Coby finds his courage tested beyond his wildest expectations, in an adventure through the heart of the dark and ancient woods, through a hurricane, and through his emergence as a young Black man in a color-charged world. Coby finds his strength, and his voice, with the help of the haunting bear-man, a sweet little skunk named Orphus, and the magic of an open heart.