Late summer in a sleepy South Carolina mill town, where heat shimmers and gossip travels faster than truth. A prosperous young bachelor stumbles on a vision he cannot shake: a dark-haired stranger rising from a hidden creek, water beading on her bare skin like diamonds. By nightfall, he has been introduced to her at a neighbor's dinner table; within weeks, he is utterly lost. The girl carries a shadow. She spent three years in a private sanitarium after a family tragedy, and she fears the wealthy mistress of the household is plotting to put her away again. When the older woman is found dead, suspicion falls where it must, and a quiet hearing seals the verdict before the town can begin to whisper. A man in love does not believe in tidy verdicts. As he digs deeper, the lowland heat begins to lift, exposing a patient, terrible crime.
