Walker Fann came from the right family, lived on the right street on the right side of town, married the right girl. Mattie Gray, the shy, pretty girl who lived down the street, the one he married, wanted him to be better. She pushed him to be more independent, to do more than was expected and demanded by his father. She thought she would win his soul, eventually. Walker has been groomed to take over the family business, a daily newspaper in a Southern town with more past than future.

One warm, end-of-summer night, a thirteen-year-old boy named Carneal Justus steals a baseball glove in a mindless act of anger and frustration, and Walker is plunged into something that seizes him and will eventually carry him to the precipice, forcing him at last to deal with his dilemma, old as the South: What do you do with your money, history, and traditions when conscience comes calling? In the defining moment of his life, Walker must do the thing Mattie knew he must do one day. He must choose.