Sam and his pa are close as close can be. But after Pa dies in a car accident, Sam is shuttled off to the dusty town of Holler, Oklahoma, to live with a long-lost aunt he barely remembers. He misses everything about the way things used to be the Louisiana swamp he grew up on, the warm cans of Orange Crush he used to drink, and, especially, the stories Pa used to tell him. Once he arrives in Holler, though, he encounters a mysterious mangy cat who leads him to an assuming tree that turns out to be a portal.