Galilee is only an hour and a half south of metropolitan Houston, but it might as well be in another world. The slow pace of life there is entirely controlled by an aging matriarch, Alice Beaumont, owner of the town's only significant enterprise - a successful apparel factory. But a hideous double murder has rocked Galilee's ruling family, tearing the town apart. Alice's younger daughter, Lorrie, and her husband, Ronnie, have been shot to death in Alice's parlor, and their infant daughter has been snatched from her crib. The local district attorney, Morgan Fletcher, is closely tied to the Beaumont family ... but he is also the brother of the chief suspect, and must remove himself from investigating the crime. Thrust into this awful scenario is Kelsey Thatch, a young assistant DA sent from Austin as special prosecutor by the attorney general. At once, she feels the heavy hand of Alice Beaumont, pushing for the indictment and speedy trial of Billy Fletcher, who is Morgan's brother and her factory manager. Kelsey soon discovers that the townspeople's loyalties are fiercely divided between the accuser and the accused - and the entire population of Galilee is fixed in a grid of interlocking relationships that govern each one's actions.