A great story of a North Carolina tobacco town that is destroyed by a leveraged buyout of the main employer and plunged from prosperity to depression. This is not just backdrop but becomes an integral part of the plot. The main character stops to help a woman after a car accident and becomes more and more involved with her, without knowing her past or her identity. He risks his job, his marriage and maybe his life as he becomes obsessed with "helping her." One secret after another is gradually revealed with a tremendous momentum building to the end.