Just outside of a small Texas town on a lazy hot day in 1919, sixteen year old Rachel Brock was found in the sea canes by the railroad tracks brutally murdered. A black man, Samuel Ford, was accused of the crime and was illegally hung. Seventeen years later Texas Special Agent Cal McKleen returns home to face the crime that not only tore a town apart but his family. His judgement comes into question when his partner, Jim Connors, learns that Cal and his cousin Jack have three things in common; a very lucrative family owned and operated mercantile; Katie, Jack's kind and caring wife, who had been Cal's true love that he abandonded years earlier; and a deadly secret they all share that is sure to destroy them. Can the combination of the three be the reason two innocent people died that hot August day? If so, will Cal be able to find the truth before there is another causality of that summer and will he be able to regain his partner's trust before it's too late?