Ray Atlee, a Law Professor at the University of Virginia, is forty-three and recently single. His father, a sick and reclusive man living in their ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi, was once a respected and influential figure in local law and politics. Knowing his time is limited, Judge Atlee summons Ray back to Clanton to discuss the family's estate. Though hesitant, Ray heads south only to find that the family meeting has been delayed by the Judge's untimely death. However, as Ray discovers a shocking secret that only he knows, it soon becomes apparent that someone else is also aware...
