A dead pastor with a brand new two-million-dollar life insurance policy interrupts Eddie Rose's romantic vacation in the central Mexican town of San Miguel de Allende. The small town of Booth, Mississippi, is shocked by the apparent murder of a prominent pastor late in a steaming hot summer. Was it murder? Was it suicide? Big Western Insurance wants to know and Eddie is their ace freelance investigator.
When the police arrest a suspect, and charge him with murder, Eddie is convinced that Dontrell Tyler, the young black man, didn't commit the crime. Eddie and Tess Taylor, a young real estate lawyer, learn that the preacher was hiding an explosive secret; a secret that could have pushed him to suicide, or others to murder. And that's not the only dangerous secret in the small town, as Eddie finds out when he jabs the hornet's nest.