Jon Beavers

Three dynastic ranch families on the central coast of California make love and war in a passionate struggle to survive, ultimately setting the stage for a group of fiercely determined young women to win big for all at the National Championship of Rodeo.

The Long Road Home is a mini-series based on Martha Raddatz's bestseller. It will chronicle the events of April 4, 2004, a day that became known in military annals as "Black Sunday," when a newly-arrived Platoon from the First Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas, was ambushed in Sadr City in Baghdad.The event series will cut between the soldiers on the ground and the homefront in Texas, where their wives and families await news for 48 hellish hours, expecting the worst. The incident, which took place 11 months after President George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech, changed the American military's view of Iraq from a peacekeeping mission to a fight against domestic insurgents.

The series centers on 17-year-old Joshua "J" Cody, who moves in with his freewheeling relatives in their Southern California beach town after his mother dies of a heroin overdose. Headed by boot-tough matriarch Janine "Smurf" Cody and her right-hand Baz, who runs the business and calls the shots, the clan also consists of Pope, the oldest and most dangerous of the Cody boys; Craig, the tough and fearless middle son; and Deran, the troubled, suspicious "baby" of the family. Also prominent are Nicky, J's steady girlfriend, and Catherine, Baz's de facto wife and the mother of their 3-year-old daughter, Lena. It isn't long before Josh is pulled into the family's life of indulgence and excess, but he soon discovers that it's all being funded by criminal activities. Joining the family comes with more danger and excitement than he might be ready to handle.