The Bastard

The Bastard depicts the deceit, treachery, and vice that festered beneath the surface of a seemingly peaceful middle-American town, then ripened and culminated in an explosive, passionate, and murderous sequence of events.

At the heart of this saga are Tommy Gardings and his best friend, Sammy, two ten-year-old boys living in 1920 Harriston, Indiana. The two boys struggle with different forms of abuse in their lives— Tommy with sexual abuse at the hands of his teacher and Sammy with physical abuse from his mother. But, when Sammy seizes an opportunity created by the disappearance of Billy Chanston, a popular, well-loved nine-year-old from a neighboring town, to change the awful situation life has created for the two boys, his actions prove catastrophic.