Seven years between them, Kirby and Riley Gordan, nurtured by their pastor father and loving mother, experienced almost ideal childhoods growing up in the Boston area. Then a season of misfortune culminated in the worse of all possible tragedies - the death of their beloved parents. Four years have passed. Kirby, having failed at marriage and pro-baseball, is now a Florida police detective. He finds himself in little Adairsville, Georgia...