"Fears and ambitions tangled together in his mind until he no longer knew what to desire, what there was in the world – good or ill, or that born of whatever twisted conspiracy is struck between the two – worth the price of his heart." Life follows a mysterious path for Poncey S. Muldoon, as he finds a treasure buried since the Civil War ... as his dog Judas helps teach town bully Bobby Roach a lesson ... as his best friend Marlin MacLenoly adopts a stray peacock that barely escaped becoming an entrée at a failing restaurant. For residents of the small Southern town of Skullbone, the days unfold in always fascinating and always pointless ways through these entertaining and insightful stories. Based on the book of Ecclesiastes, "A Time for Poncey" brings the tradition of great Southern writing into the present, a New Southern Gothic, spiced with humor, salted with truth.