Seventeen-year-old Jem Starling struggles to define her place within her strict Christian community in rural Kentucky. Even her greatest joy – the church dance group – is tempered by worry that her love of dance is actually sinful, and she’s caught between a newfound awareness of her own sexuality and an instinctive resistance to her mom’s insistence that the time has come to begin courting. She finds respite in the encouragement of her youth pastor Owen, who is likewise drawn to the blossoming Jem’s attention.