This Strange Evening Land is a story set in the most remote and isolated realms of

Appalachia, the world of the author' s father, grandparents, and generations of great grandparents.

Teenagers Leaf Ann Polk and her brother, Ezra, live alone in the back-woods hollow where they were raised, on the farm they inherited when their mother died. Their father, Clydell Payne, and his identical twin brother, Cas, had left the county years ago and never returned after their tours of duty in Vietnam. Cas was listed MIA, and it is believed throughout the county that he perished in the war. But Cas survived. Claiming to be Clydell, he returns to Laurel County and attempts to finagle ownership of the Polk land, threatening to displace Leaf Ann and Ezra.