1932 Appalachia~
Shine and Annie Adams are women on the run. Shine has no intention of allowing Annie to marry a man twice her age in the unholy alliance Daddy Leroy has arranged. Not only that, but their crime-ridden neighborhood, with its rat-infested tenements and nefarious nighttime activity, is no place for two women living on their own.
Shine and Annie flee to the tiny town of Whistle Stop where mountain woman Mellie Nester welcomes them into her humble home. Mellie’s primitive shack is bursting at the seams with good country cooking, tattered quilts, and as much love as Shine and Annie have ever known.
Believing they’ve found safety among friends, Shine counts herself doubly-blessed when she finds a budding romance with the town sheriff, Hodge Collins. She and Annie can finally put their fears to rest, or so Shine thinks. But, if she’s learned anything, it’s how quickly things can change. A simple afternoon walk in the woods takes an ugly turn when Annie rejects the lewd advances of local bad boy, Boyd Crider. When Shine fights him off, a drunken Boyd promises revenge, and it isn’t long before sinister things begin happening.
Shine and Annie both breathe a sigh of relief when Boyd is locked up for running moonshine, but to their surprise, the attacks keep on coming. Because someone’s got a dirty little secret. A secret that’s about to come to light. When it does, Shine and Annie are going to learn who really wants them gone from Whistle Stop. And why.