Paytonville is usually such a quiet town - one of those places where nothing much ever happens to trouble the good folk who live there: the sun beats down relentlessly, day turns to night, and life rolls lazily on.

But this week is like no other: within hours of a young woman being reported missing the town's sheriff finds herself beginning an investigation into what can only be considered a brutal and motiveless crime, while at the same time a friendship between two men is torn apart by the drunken events of a single night...