The best people in the world

In Paducah, Kentucky, seventeen-year-old Thomas feels as reined in as the mighty Ohio, a river confined by high floodwalls protecting his small Southern hometown.

But all boundaries vanish when Thomas experiences first love with Alice, his new history teacher, a woman eight years his seniorand when he meets Shiloh, a misfit vagabond and anarchist who becomes his new role model.

Fleeing to rural Vermont, this unlikely trio boldly pursues freedom, intimacy, and seclusion, unfettered by commitments and rules.

But a life apart from the world does not ensure a life apart from the pastand for one of them, the past that emerges will threaten tragedy.