Young Sharon "Lill" Ernst finds solace in the woodlands of her rural hometown of Painted Post. With her family, Lill has grown up following their coonhounds in the nighttime forests. Andrew Renthro, orphan but the heir apparent to a vast empire of drug dealers, has been ordered by to prove his worthiness. Andrew leaves his native Chicago-a teen who eagerly seeks revenge for a father he never knew-and his success means destroying the unsuspecting Ernst family. However, the forests of Painted Post don't belong solely to the realm of man. Stories of guiding spirits, ghostly hounds, and hideous beasts abound in this mystical place of forests, streams, and woodland pathways. For many trails converge and diverge in the oak-strewn hills of Painted Post. Some paths lead to redemption. . . while others may end in certain doom. But all pathways have the potential to become legend.