The handwritten sign on the tree says it all: REPENT. For Anna Pigeon, this should be reason enough to turn back for her beloved Mesa Verde. Instead she heads for the Natchez Trace Parkway and the promotion that awaits her there. Almost immediately, she finds herself in the midst of controversy: as the new district ranger, she faces resentment so extreme that her ability to do her job may be compromised, and her life may very well be in danger. But all thoughts of personal safety are set aside with the discovery of a young girl's body near an overgrown country cemetery, a sheet around her head, a noose around her neck.
The bizarre connection to a best-forgotten past is not the only hurdle Anna must clear in the course of the investigation. Locals reluctant to talk with a northerner - and a woman - hinder her progress; a band of Civil War reenactors questions her motives; and a vicious attack very nearly claims the life of her closest companion. Only when Anna herself is brutally beaten does the puzzle begin to come together. If she can only stay conscious long enough to make the final pieces fit...
The kudzu is thick and green, the woods dark and full of secrets. And the ghosts of violence are all too present as Anna struggles for answers to questions that, perhaps, should never be asked.