Returning home from college for the weekend, John Bratcher meets up with his old running pals at the local bar. Searching for his best buddy, Mike Connolly, who is in Police Cadet training, John stumbles into a drunken seduction by his friend's mother. Discovered in the transgression by the murderous husband, who happens to be the local Sheriff, John is assaulted, left for dead, and then disappears.

Seventeen years later, Deputy Mike Connolly moves back to his hometown. Wanting to live up to the lawman ideal of his fantasies, he tries to reacquaint himself with a town now run by Sheriff Russling, his step-father. He begins to uncover the disturbing story of his friend's disappearance, which is covered up by a tangle of lies, murder and deceit.

With complicated relationships strained under the brutish bully system of the sheriff, Mike finds that everyone has a secret but no one wants to stand up to the truth. Small town justice prevails, and life moves on.