Just 19 and from the wrong end of town, Lucas Smothers has been arrested for the rape and murder of a local girl. His lawyer, former Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland, is convinced of Lucas's innocence—but is he blinded by the fact that this is his illegitimate son? In prison, Lucas overhears gruesome tales of serial murder from a neighboring cell, and in James Lee Burke's 1997 novel, he and Holland will soon have vicious enemies.