In a small town, everyone knows everyone else's business. But in Brindle, Oregon, there's a secret nobody wants to see.

Brindle is a dying town, each generation smaller than the last. But Ruth Ann Colonna, who has run the local paper for almost sixty years, is determined to keep the past alive with a special edition of The Brindle Times, to celebrate the town's centennial. Photos, letters and newspaper articles trace the town's inhabitants back to its founding members. But the relics of the past hold more than a record of marriages and deaths; they also hide a secret too dark to acknowledge.

Todd Fielding needs a job, and the offer to provide her computer expertise to The Brindle Times seems like the perfect opportunity. The only downside to small-town life is the potential for boredom, she suspects. But soon after her arrival in Brindle, Todd realizes she was very wrong. A young girl disappears . . . and no one in the town appears particularly concerned.

Looking deeper into the story, Todd uncovers a shocking fact: five other girls have "run away" from Brindle under strange circumstances over the past twenty years -- and no one seems interested in finding them. With Ruth Ann's help, she begins to understand the history of a town steeped in evil, manipulation and cold-blooded murder. This town has cloaked itself in secrecy far too long. And innocents are paying the deadly price of silence.