Meg Gregory never wanted to return to Tuskin, the small Georgia town in which she grew up. But after her divorce left her wounded, she knew she had to quit running. Now, years later, Meg is bent on hiding from the memories that haunt her. Because she skipped town for a reason, and that reason runs deep. But when Meg's unassuming granddaughter, Lucy, is suddenly charged with the murder of her boyfriend, everything changes. Meg knows Lucy couldn't have done it. As she fights for Lucy's innocence, memories from the past threaten to break free, and she's left to contemplate a different murder, a different dead boy, a different summer under the hot Georgia sun. And soon enough, Meg isn't quite sure what is memory and who is innocent.

Following a semi-successful career as a teen model in New York City, Danielle Greer has moved back to the mountains of North Georgia and is living in her childhood home with her husband and four daughters. One stifling, lazy afternoon, the girls are exploring the ravine behind the house when they come across a body. Danielle knows the body doesn't belong to Benji Law, a younger local misfit who she had an illicit relationship with as a teenager. No, his body was found after he was killed in a motorcycle accident on the road in front of her family's house. Danielle has a good idea who the body might be, but she doesn't know how it got there. When local police officer Cady Benson is called in to investigate, Danielle's world is turned upside down, and she's thrust back into those dark, confusing days leading up to Benji's death.