When a father suddenly disappears from the life of a young boy, a new role is carved out for Arthur as he struggles through life's challenges. Growing up as the eldest male child in a family destined to support themselves by sharecropping on a cotton plantation during the Jim Crow era, Arthur daydreams about the day this daddy will return. In the meantime, his colorful, hard-working mother is focused on keeping her four children fed, clothed and protected from the likes of people who murdered 14-year-old Emmett Till in a community not too far from the Hobbs Plantation where Arthur came to know the life of sharecroppers. As Arthur's family moved from shotgun house to shotgun house, the personal stories of characters in and out of their lives are painful at times and joyous and funny at other moments.