Does true evil exist in the world? Are people really what they seem?

Abandoned by each of her children's fathers, Shelley Tremayne's having a tough time raising six kids alone. When she sees a TV newscast about five boys committing a horrible crime and recognizes her eleven-year-old son Joey in the surveillance camera footage, her life becomes infinitely worse. Although Joey swears he only witnessed the incident, the other boys point to him as the instigator, a charge supported by the evidence. But Shelley simply can't accept that her Joey could be responsible for such a heinous act.

Shelley and her children can't return to their grubby home, where their neighbors are waiting to express their outrage. Fortunately, good Samaritans John and Eunice Bolton volunteer to shelter the family at their farm, and offer them the help and caring that they've given to so many others in desperate straits. But who will believe Shelley when she discovers that the Boltons are not as kind as they appear?