It was the summer of 1950 in Taneytown, Alabama, and what started out as a childish game quickly turned tragic when Maggie Green's playmate Angel disappeared. Maggie lied to her parents and the police about where they had been playing to protect another friend. That lie would haunt her long after she and her brother discovered Angel's lifeless body in the woods.

Sensing that their way of life would never be as innocent and carefree again, Maggie and her friends struggled to comprehend who in their town could commit such a brutal crime. Frustrated and scared residents voiced prejudices and hurled accusations against odd town characters, including the Walking Man and Maggie's trusted friend, Mozell, the old Negro woman who lived in the river bottoms. But Maggie soon learned that good and evil can be found in many forms-few of them obvious or predictable.

Five decades later, Maggie heads back to her hometown. Memories of the past instantly flood her mind: the smell of red clay, the coolness of the Cahaba River, and the calls of mockingbirds take her back to that hot summer when she made a promise that would take a lifetime to fulfill