With a voice that's as comforting as a rock­ing chair and as salty as a fisherman" (Houston Chronicle, of Houston in the Rearview Mirror), Deputy Sheriff Milton Kovak of Prophesy County, Oklahoma, returns. Milt finally gets up the nerve to ask his longtime ladylove, Glenda Sue Rainey, to marry him—only to be rebuffed with no explanation and a good-bye at the door. When Glenda Sue is found dead the next day, brutally murdered, Milt is dazed. Enter Glenda Sue's long-lost daughter, who arrives in town for the funeral with her own little girl in tow. The only problem: little Rebecca is half-black, and the residents of Prophesy County aren't all as open-minded as Milt. As the threat of more violence looms, Milt begins to have strange dreams about Rebecca's safety, dreams whose common feature is the presence of a woman with leg braces. These dreams lead him to Dr. Jean McDonnell, a handicapped psychiatrist, whom Milt enlists to help him find out what happened to Glenda Sue—and why. When sister Jewel Ann announces plans to move herself and her family out of Milt's house and into the home of Harmon Monk, Milt begins to see Dr. McDonnell as having a role to play in his personal life as well.