For Nelson Gody, the summer of 1969, the summer he would turn sixteen, began as all his past summers had. Life on his family's small farm outside Bells Ferry, Mississippi was safe and routine: chores, taking care of his little sister, working at a local gas station, swimming in the river with his best friend-his world was familiar and predictable. All that would change as young Nelson experiences his first love, wrestles with the secret his best friend has been hiding, and meets a mysterious stranger who appears one day on an exotic motorcycle called the Black Shadow. Capped by the devastating effects of hurricane Camille, the events of that summer ensure that life as Nelson knows it would never be the same again.