George and Grace O'Bannion retired to Virginia's rural Northern Neck, a rolling land laced with many creeks and small rivers. Grace is a retired Army Intelligence officer and George a retired history professor and author of a successful series of historical novels. A very old man, last of a Virginia family tracing back to the 1600s is found murdered in his two century old plantation home. George, doing research for a second historical fiction series, becomes involved when it appears a potentially very valuable but hidden archive of family records may have provided a motive. Gradually, a tale of generations of murder, betrayal, exploitation and manipulation come to light.