While trying to deal with her depressed mother and her pious father in a small Midwest town in the 1960s, eleven-year-old Grace struggles with inherited psychic powers that her aunt calls "The Knowing."

Grace Carter has the Knowing. It offers glimpses of people's pasts and futures, and allows Grace to talk to Isaac, her twin brother who died at birth. To Aunt Pearl, the Knowing is a family gift; to Grace's strict Evangelical pastor father, it's witchcraft. Her sisters Hope, Joy, and Chastity enjoy a normal life. It's Grace's friendships that keeps her afloat: Lyle, a gentle, homeless man, and Lola, a free-spirited girl at school. When a young girl goes missing, and Grace's mother lapses into deep depression after bringing home a new baby, Grace must find the courage to stand apart, and make herself heard.