A death at the county poorhouse is unremarkable in 1900. Unless the corpse presents as a drowning victim and there is no water on the property.

Widowed undertaker Carrie Lisbon has traveled to Duncan, the county seat, to attend the Annual Sheriff's Benefit Ball. But before the country hoe-down can begin, Sheriff Del Morgan asks her again to be his "keen observer" as he examines the body of Abbey Taylor, a resident of the county home whose death is more than a little suspect.

At the heart of the mystery is the county poorhouse and its shadowy past, a bitter matron, an oily administrator, and a young bride, all of whom have something to hide. Under a withering August heat wave, Carrie and Del pursue meager pieces of the puzzle. Their search for answers leads them to a clan of noble miscreants who live in the hills, through a tangle of genealogies and tragic histories, and brings them way too close to each other.

Along with her gangly Uncle Sav, his half-blind cousin Grace, and Marta, the beautiful and disgraced almshouse drudge, Carrie will grapple with a deadly illness, her own guilty conscience, and a new set of social trials as she decides the fate of her relationship with Morgan and discovers what really happened to Abbey Taylor. She'll need all her wits to survive the outcome.