The film is told from the perspective of Cindy and Jim Green, as they explain their experience with Timothy in an effort to persuade an adoption agency to allow the couple to adopt a child. Cindy, who works in the town's local museum, and Jim, who is employed at the town's historic pencil factory, reside in the drought-stricken town of Stanleyville, North Carolina, self-labeled as "the pencil capital of the world".