When Jessie Barnes' parents are seriously injured in a car accident, she takes a leave of absence from her investigator job with the Chicago Police Department to help care for them in their home in Aiken, South Carolina. While in town, she's tapped to help the shorthanded local sheriff's department.

Just a week after her arrival in the sleepy southern town, she is called to investigate a double homicide. Tom and Carol Lowe have been shot to death in their spacious home on Mulberry Street. This isn't a typical crime for Aiken, which generally deals with much lesser-profile problems. Working with lead investigator Bill Hankinson, Jessie must leave her tough Chicago tactics behind as she adjusts to his southern ways.

The job gets interesting when additional murders occur in nearby Burnettown. She is assisted through the investigations and her indoctrination into the southern lifestyle by William Bradford, a local entrepreneur who develops a romantic interest in her.

As Jessie and the sheriff's department struggle to discover the truth behind these unlikely crimes, their investigation reveals shocking details that are highly unusual in these typically peaceful towns.