Noah Locke, A World War II veteran, returns home at the end of the war to find his parents have died, his younger brother is in prison and the family farm has been sold. Feeling lost in the world, Noah wanders the back roads of the South in search of a place to belong... a place to call home. He encounters a mysterious stranger, who guides him to a small mountain community called the Valley of Light. There he meets and befriends Matthew, a mute boy, and Eleanor, a young widow. Eleanor and Noah are two lonely souls who develop a strong attraction to one other. But when tragedy strikes the community, Noah must decide if he truly belongs in the Valley of Light.