An ambitious young environmental scientist hoped to establish a sustainable farm on a small patch of river-bottom land nestled among the Mississippi hills. Jay Mize convinced his wife, Sandy, to move their six-year-old son away from town and to a rich and lush parcel. He did not know that within a year he’d be ruined, that flood and pestilence would invade his fledgling farm, or that his wife and son would leave him. When Jay discovers a corpse on his property, he is sure his bad luck has come to a head and he is being framed.