"The Powell brothers, Muir and Moody, are as different as Cain and Abel. Muir is an innocent, a shy young man with big dreams and not the slightest idea of what to do about them. Moody, the older and wilder brother - embittered by the death of his father, by years of fighting his mother, and by his jealously of Muir's privileged place in the family - takes to moonshine and gambling and turns his anger on his brother.

Muir escapes, hoping to find something - an occupation, a calling - to match his ambition." "Through it all their mother, Ginny, tries to steer them right, all the while remembering her own losses: her husband, her youth, and the fiery sense of God that once ordered her world." "When Muir discovers his purpose in life, the consequences are far-reaching and irrevocable: a community threatens to tear itself apart, and his family is forever changed."--BOOK JACKET.