On one of the stormiest, busiest night of the year, a prominent businessman stumbles into the sheriff's office, confessing to a 40-year-old murder. Just a few hours later he's found hanging from the ceiling of the conference room. The district attorney is soon on the warpath and all the clues point to one man.

Sheriff Sharyn Howard begins to search for the key to unlock a secret shared by three men for forty years. A district court judge, a prominent businessman, and her own deputy, Ernie Watkins, believe that they were responsible for a child's death at the old Jefferson Training School for Boys when they were just teenagers.

But now someone is after all the men, and it's up to Sheriff Howard to unravel 40 years of cover-ups, blackmail, lies, and guilt. But with so many suspects and such little time, can she find the real killer before an innocent man is convicted of murder or before the real killer can stalk and kill his prey?