Set in suburban Georgia in the early 2010s, teens Devyn and Eddie must navigate the ends of their childhoods and launch into young adulthood. Devyn, a member of a notable family, is an elite athlete who must try to create success for herself while also bearing the burden of carrying on the success of her father. Eddie, born and raised in poverty, must try to create his own success, trying to shake the failure of his father.

Both characters try their hands in a shifting America, where old ideals have collapsed and given way to new ones, and where the keepers and treasurers of the old ideals are hurt by the shift, and willing to bring everyone around them down with them. A story of friends and neighbors, Each One a Nation is a long-form realistic drama in the style of George Elliot's Middlemarch or Sinclair Lewis's Main Street.