

Tess approaches the move as she would a new game of chess, plotting her course through the unfamiliar reality of her new life. But when her veteran father reenlists in the Army, moving her family halfway across the country to North Carolina, Tess is forced out of her comfort zone into a world she knows nothing about.

Although she chooses to spend most of her free time playing chess with her best friend Zander, the farm-boy from next door, her skills as a bovine midwife and tractor mechanic ensure that she fits in with the other kids at West Hancock High. Tess Goodwin’s life in rural Iowa is sheltered and uncomplicated.
