The same week three friends open a restaurant called The Swimming Rabbit in Elora, South Carolina, a woman is murdered across town, leaving her twelve-year-old daughter, Jasmine, pregnant and orphaned. In the wake of the murder several lives are thrown into chaos. Swimming Rabbit owner Boyd Tennor wants to use the tragedy to his advantage, hoping a fundraiser for Jasmine will increase the restaurant's reputation and revenues. NFL icon Sterling Carroll offers to participate, wanting to help Jasmine stay at the home run by Boyd's ex-girlfriend Emily. Boyd and his business partners are thrilled, but Boyd's employee Lamont is not.
Lamont has been keeping secret not only that he's Sterling's brother, but that Sterling was kicked out of the NFL for gambling and is currently a bookie for Elora's biggest criminal. Lamont, a PhD candidate, waits tables only to help Sterling pay off his gambling debt. Preoccupied with his brother's financial troubles, his own struggles within the philosophy department, and his longing for an unavailable woman, Lamont fails to ask the most important question: Why is Sterling, recently fallen on hard times himself, so interested in helping this little girl? What might his involvement be in her mother's death?
As the fundraiser draws near, Sterling’s past gambling problems begin to jeopardize The Swimming Rabbit’s delicate balance. While the owners fight for control of the restaurant, Jasmine fights for a place to live.