The novel is set in North Carolina in 1899 and 1951 and explores the ritual, traditions, and gender politics within different families. The brutal rape and murder of an eccentric middle-aged woman affects all the characters' lives in subtle, but unique ways.The story begins in 1951. Woven throughout are family secrets: incidents involving misogyny, prejudice, superiority, miscegenation, and bastard births. The 1951 sections reveal startling truths about this fictional North Carolina town and its families.The novel shifts to 1899 with the murdered woman's past. Ancestral concerns and innovative founding fathers provide intriguing truths about the town, the murdered woman, and the silver and opal pinkie ring she always wore.