The Lightning Tree is a deeply moving and inspirational story of the Nolan Moss clan, a close-knit black family of fifteen souls bound together by love, living on the edge of existence, struggling to eke out a living, plowing the hard red clay on a small plot of ground in the isolated backwaters of Tallassee, Alabama. The head of the family is Charlie Nolan Moss, the patriarch, a devout man of strong character, proud, fiercely independent, and deeply spiritual. He is bound and determined by the grace of God to provide for and protect his family despite the ever present threats and challenges that are a part of everyday life in the racist and repressive atmosphere of the Jim Crow South. Yet in spite of all his efforts, vigilance, and prayers, bad things still happen.