In Oak Knoll, a tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, single mother and professor of forestry and ecology, Valerie Alston-Holt, is raising her bright and talented biracial son, Xavier. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition, and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter. Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he's made a small fortune on his customer service and charm, while his wife, Julia, escaped her trailer park upbringing for the security of marriage and homemaking. But with little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.
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