In 1964, a Black teenager was murdered by a drunken white cop who got away with the crime, and eight years later, the boy' s best friend, Shane, returns from combat intent on carving out justice himself. Suzanne, the daughter of the lawyer who failed in prosecuting the case, also lands back in Virginia, but her aim is to follow her father' s path to suicide, a path created by his loss and the severe rheumatoid arthritis that followed.

Shane and Suzanne were four years apart in high school and barely knew each other before they met, but after a chance encounter, an almost instant connection is made. Neither knows the other' s secret goal, but as their bonds deepen, their love will be tested by familial duty, long-held grief, and even shifting sanity. But love might have other plans for both Shane and Suzanne if both decide to live long enough to find out. In this vividly told and slightly surreal novel, the power of forgiveness might be their salvation.