Driving late at night on a rural road in 1948, Billy Dalton sees a burning car in the distance. He brakes, sprints to the fiery vehicle, and rescues a beaten woman and a rope-bound little girl just before the gas tank explodes. Later, awakening in a hospital and covered with burns, the sheriff tells Billy there was no woman, no child, and no other vehicle found at the scene—only the scorched wreckage of Billy's own car. Gradually and reluctantly, Billy accepts the story that he crashed his automobile into a tree and hallucinated the woman and the little girl in the trauma of the fire. However, thirteen years later, a surprise visit from a private investigator will help Billy unravel the truth about what really happened that night and will unearth a depraved and murderous conspiracy. The novel is a suspenseful story of deceit, desperation, love, and redemption set against a background of racism, corruption, and injustice in mid-twentieth century America.