Darleen Union and Eli Wade are childhood friends torn apart by a murder that has never been solved. Raised by her grandmother, Darleen is the heir to Hardigree Marble Company, which controls the small North Carolina town of Burnt Stand, and Eli is the boy genius destined to make something of himself when his family is forced to leave. But now, years later, long-buried secrets are about to be, literally, dug up: "On a dark spring night twenty-five years after I helped bury my Great Aunt Clara Hardigree, I found myself digging her up". A story about destiny, and a great love affair, this is a rich, gothic, Southern story about the darker side of family myths.