Ruth Willmarth's husband has left her with three children and a farm to manage in Vermont. When she discovers her neighbors beaten and robbed, she is determined to get to the source of the problem. Coping with her own family's difficulties in addition to a series of suspicious barn fires and murder makes her call on her old high-school friend Colm Hanna to help solve the crimes. Mystery by Nancy Means Wright; originally published by St. Martin's Press