John Turner—ex-policeman, ex-con, war veteran and former therapist—has come to a small town near Memphis to escape his past. But the past proves inescapable; thrust into the role of Deputy Sheriff, Turner finds himself at the center of his new community, one that, like so many others, is drying up, disappearing before his eyes.

The sheriff's long-lost son comes plowing down Main Street into City Hall in what appears to be a stolen car, while waiting back at Turner's cabin is his good friend, Eldon Brown. "They think I killed someone," he says. Turner asks: "Did you?" And Eldon responds: "I don't know." Haunted by his own ghosts, Turner nonetheless goes in search of a truth he's not sure he can live with.