Thomas H. Cook returns to his home territory of Alabama for his latest mystery. Luke Paige, historian and writer, is signing his latest work in a bookstore when in the queue he spots a woman he hoped never to see again. Lola Faye was once his father’s secret lover, the destroyer of his childhood. Her husband shot Luke’s father dead, and his mother died soon after. Lola Faye wants to talk – and talk – over a drink, that becomes dinner, and then another drink. Slowly, painfully, Luke and Lola revisit the terrible events that have shaped their lives. The story they reveal is one of the timeless struggle between fathers and sons; of longed-for passion; of hopes and dreams thwarted by fate and circumstances.