Hers is a voice so rich that a single page can be thrilling", hailed the New York Times Book Review of Georgia novelist Janice Daugharty. And indeed, in this new work, narrated through the heart and soul of Roper, an uneducated, hard-working black man, she evokes the very essence of her own southern landscape and its people, with grace, poignancy, and power.

Roper is on probation for a petty crime, working for a prominent white family and determined to improve his life, when he stumbles across the body of his boss's wife, dead of a sudden heart attack. Terrified that he'll be sent to jail for murder, he hides her body in a deep well on his boss's property. But as days pass and the painstaking search for the woman proves fruitless, the frightened man finds himself crippled by guilt and paranoia. Ultimately, as surprises from the past collide with tensions of the present, Daugharty creates a suspense-filled and satisfying denouement to her most ambitious and memorable novel to date.