The movie making business engulfing Georgia has finally made its way to the little foothill village of Adairsville. Bookseller and police chaplain, Davis Morgan, along with a young female clerk discover the body of a member of the movie company at the foot of a large oak tree. There is no shortage of suspects: the mysterious red headed man, the sister of the victim, the fiancée, the angry girl friend's mother, and others. During the investigation an already troubled Charley is framed for a drug crime, and Davis receives word that an old enemy is on his way to Georgia after escaping from prison to make good a threat against him. Late one afternoon, it all comes to an astonishing conclusion beneath the same sprawling oak where it started.