The novel is set in 1968 when the small southern town of Cascade decides to put on a Sesquicentennial. They hire a mid-western company that organizes such events and the company sends in Devon Poole, a young man who seems enigmatic to the locals. The tragic sequence of national events in 1968 are unleashed in juxtaposition to the Sesquicentennial preparations. Locals do not know that their economic and social fabric is beginning to unravel as they celebrate 150 years. They also do not know that Devon may have an involvement with those national events over which they have no control. It is mystery fiction.