Plagued by severe depression after the breakup of his marriage, Amos Grant is forced to leave his reporter job with a large daily newspaper and return to the small Florida cowboy town of his birth. He consents to take over his dead father's small weekly paper and care for his ailing mother. He feels shackled but then, after ten years in Taterville, he sees a chance to finally escape this backward community. However, the death of two young boys, forces him to remain until he can solve the mystery of their deaths. His investigation uncovers the dark underbelly of the town and the dire consequences if he continues his quest for the truth.