Faith Jackson's smile obscures the pain of the past and her fear of bullets flying past her mother's apartment in the Soulsville neighborhood of Memphis. But Faith has a refuge: A magnolia tree that she has named April gives her comfort. She enters April through a hole in the trunk and waters her and checks her heartbeat. Nearby, Hattie Mae is a fading echo of the young girl. The ailing older woman looks back and dreams of youth and health. She places handwritten messages on a giant battered tree stump in her front yard telling those who pass to live now.