Magic realism meets myth in the real and imaginary efforts of two small towns in the Cedar Valley when they face encroaching corruption and evil. Hysteria sets in with the murder of an anonymous girl followed by the abduction of a prominent citizen’s daughter. The harassment of a professor’s family and of a much respected farmer quickens the plot. The citizens of an idyllic college town and the factory and commercial centers of the other town face off in a spiteful mayoral election questioning the possibility of merger. A blizzard, then pounding rain, and torrential flood waters combine to further set the communities of the two river towns on edge, tightening the tension and contributing to the dissolution of morale, marriage, and community. Native American prophecy, involving the return of a mystical sturgeon, becomes real one climactic night in a vigilante chase. Whether restitution is possible remains a question for the towns, the reader, the river, and its ghosts.