It's 1978 and Ave Maria Mulligan is the 35-year-old self-proclaimed spinster of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, a sleepy hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As the local pharmacist, she's been keeping the townsfolk's secrets for years, but she's about to discover a scandal in her own family's past that will blow the lid right off her quiet, uneventful life.
Soon she's juggling two marriage proposals, conducting a no-holds-barred family feud, directing the prestigious "Outdoor Drama", and helping her best friend choreograph a half-time show suitable for Elizabeth Taylor, who's coming to town on a campaign stop with her husband, senatorial candidate John Warner.