10-year-old Luke lives with his parents and grandparents in Arkansas during the Korean War. To pick the cotton in their fields, they must hire "hill people" and Mexicans. Hank is a "hill person" who doesn't take kindly to people looking down on him. Luke witnesses a fight that Hank gets into that causes the death of another person. With better times ahead to look forward to, the town gets excited about a new invention - television.

Mitchie Torres is a teen with an amazing voice and a driving ambition to be a pop singer. All she wants is to spend her summer at a prestigious music camp. The camp is expensive, but her mom gets a job as one of Camp Rock's cooks so that Mitchie can attend as long as she helps out in the kitchen between classes. Befriended by fellow camp member Caitlyn, but intimidated by the immensely talented Tess Tyler and her friends, Peggy and Ella, Mitchie lives...