In this historical mystery, set in Arkansas in 1961 when the mob still ruled Hot Springs, babies are being kidnapped, and the local sheriff has to put this case to bed before the bosses come down from Chicago. They don't need the heat, and they have the leverage with the sheriff to make him do whatever they want. It seems like a good move to arrest Leslie Richards, the new woman in town, even though there is only thin circumstantial evidence against her. Better for it to be a stranger taking those babies and not one of their own.

Leslie has left New York with her ten-year-old daughter, Mandy, hoping to escape from her past and the ruins of a relationship, only to discover that there is little peace for her in Pine Hollow, Arkansas.