Narrator Jess Tyler lives alone on his small farm in a coal town where they stopped mining years ago. His wife, Belle, left him ages ago and he's been alone ever since -- until the beginning of this story, when he comes home to find a very forward nineteen year-old girl sitting on his stoop. She plays coy for a while, but finally lets him in on her secret: she's his daughter, Kady, whom he hasn't seen since she was small. "Your little girl. The one you like." He takes her in. Problem is, she plays more than just coy -- and Jess finds he likes his grown-up little girl in entirely new ways now. He's pretty good at resisting, for a while, despite her teasing, but he can't entirely resist her allure. When Kady takes a job in town he hatches a plan to keep her around again, and make a bit of cash to keep her happy with: they set up a moonshine operation. Jess rarely ventures into town, and leaves a lot up to Kady. She certainly knows how to handle herself -- a bit too well, he sometimes wonders. But there are a lot of things where he finds he doesn't want to dig too deeply.