Lucy Thurber's Where We're Born focuses on life in a small, working-class rural town, where family relationships are maintained by a delicate balance between desire and dependency. When a local girl returns home from her elite college, her new identity and world view challenges all that she once knew, leaving her family and friends in a state of utter chaos.

In a small town in Western Massachusetts, the Lawrence family struggles with poverty, boredom and lost potential. Into this isolated town comes Ellen, a highly educated, wealthy and well- traveled young woman who wants to give back to her country through education. She starts teaching in the public high school where Billy and Rachel Lawrence go, and she develops an obsession with Billy's intelligence, insight and potential. Her obsession and desire to lift Billy out of poverty tears the family apart.