Loo is growing into a teenager and her dad decides it’s time to settle down. After years of constant moves, Loo finds it difficult to fit in at school, deal with boys, and interact with her estranged grandmother. But most of all, she’s having a hard time understanding how her mother’s mysterious death is connected to the bullet scars that mark her father’s body.

By alternating between Loo’s coming-of-age story and glimpses into her father’s violent past, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley asks if the power of love is enough to change a life and turn a bad man into a good father.