The book begins during the late twenties and thirties. The book deals with two teenagers in a small village in Western North Carolina during the Jim Crow era. It is during the period when social contact between races is nonexistent, especially in rural America. Two individuals of different races find themselves drawn to each other. When one of them is murdered, the other is suspected. The mystery of the death and the resulting trial, fueled by hatred of the Klan, reaches the climax.