In the summer of 1996 at Kinder Mann Forest Camp in rural Missouri, the elderly camp director finds his counselors swimming naked two days before the camp is to open and fires them all. Among his new counselors is Wyatt Hurdy, a genetically disfigured young man. All his life, large, gentle, diligent Wyatt has been misjudged because of his appearance. Now, he's among the counselors who will be responsible for 104 severely developmentally disabled adults, all wards of the state. In this world away from the world, the new counselors and disabled campers will begin to reveal themselves, and though most are well-intentioned, Wyatt is called on to prevent a terrible tragedy. But in doing so, he commits an act whose repercussions will alter his life and the lives of other Kinder Mann staff members for life.