Carol grows up in beautiful Montana, but her family is fraught with problems. When her parents separate and her mother dies she's sent to an orphanage. Longing to belong to a family again, Carol begs her grandmother to take her in, but she soon learns home is not as great as she envisioned. Her grandmother is unfit to raise her, and her father is an alcoholic. Eventually, Carol is sent to a reform school. When Carol gets a job as a nanny, the man of the house promptly gets her pregnant. After having children, she finds herself battling postpartum depression, and she enters a mental hospital in Oregon. Now, Carol must deal with a series of past marriages, a pending divorce and life's painful memories. Despite it all, Carol beats the odds, going to college and overcoming her demons. Everything is on the right track when one of her children dies. She ends up developing a children's bereavement program and summer camp. Join Carol as she proves that even someone with a tainted past can inspire others and make a difference in The Bastard Tree.