There Is A River

"Your life took a detour down the river... See where it goes."
-Charlie Bradford


It's 1978, and songs from the movie Saturday Night Fever top the record charts. U.S. President Jimmy Carter brokers a landmark peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. And a New York state health emergency becomes international news when the neighborhood called Love Canal is found to be sitting on a toxic waste dump.

What seems like a world away, Janie Smith struggles as a waitress and single mother, living near the beautiful Ashepoo River in Green Pond, South Carolina. Janie finds a measure of peace on the marsh behind her home. An elderly neighbor, Charlie Bradford, frequently fishes across the narrow channel and the two strike up an unlikely friendship.

When Janie notices a strange smell on the wind and in the water outside her home, she wonders whether it may be tied to the electronics company just up the river. At first, no one else seems to share her concern. After all, Shelton Manufacturing is the area's biggest employer.

Janie suspects that something is wrong with the river. It could affect her young daughter, her neighbors, and the community she calls home. I'm just a waitress, she thinks. A single mom. And yet Janie can't let it go. With advice from Charlie, she decides to act. Soon, long-held secrets are uncovered and there are serious wrongs to be righted.