Cowart Cheney shot his sister and brother-in-law to death a week before Christmas 1937. His motives remained as ambiguous 55 years later as they did at the time, because soon after the shootings a lunacy board in Piscola County, Georgia, committed Cheney to the state mental hospital. He died in the 1970s, never revealing why he killed the couple - until now.
Years later, newspaperman Brooks Sheffield learns of a bequest that seems as strange as the man who left the town money for a new park and garden. Joined by his buddy Dub Campbell, Sheffield delves into the mystery of Cheney only to encounter more murders -- along with a kidnapping and attempted slaying too close for comfort.
Eventually, they discover that Cowart Cheney left something else from his dark past: A story he tells from the grave.