Underneath the surface of a small Central Texas town, where people know each other and adhere to the old values of hard work and neighborliness, a dark secret life flows silently. People congregate at an old-time country store and at their churches, but are not immune to the modern complications of divorce and remarriage-and murder.

Carla, a petite pretty girl, is one of three sisters in a poor but respectable family. Unlike her passionate, acting-out younger sister, she never gives her parents a moment's trouble. Nor is she like her self-sacrificing older sister, June. Carla harbors a strong work ethic, a fierce ambition, and a powerful sex drive-with a creative flair. Her high school sweetheart, Leroy, can never forget Carla, even after his dreams are shattered. And Ray, a big man with a big heart, succumbs to a shocking web of deceit.

Jim, a man whose taciturn exterior hides his preoccupation with a personal tragedy, captains the Search and Rescue horse team, called to the small Central Texas town of Graylor to search for the body of a missing man. But Bill, the deputy sheriff in charge of the investigation, resents any outside interference. He is embroiled in the competing claims of his current and former wives, and his son Jeffrey seems headed in the wrong direction.

How will all these lives intersect? How do ordinary people change when a brutal murder severs the ties of kinship, love, and loyalty?

Set to the rhythms of nature-sowing, growing, harvesting-in a rural landscape that still retains a few wild places, the book poses the question: Is a sociopath born or made, is it nature or nurture-or a combination of the two?