Things go wrong for dangerous, young David Egan when he finds himself charged with the murder of the pampered but seriously disturbed daughter in the wealthy Griffin family of Black River Falls. They go fatally wrong the night that Egan crashes his black Mercury into a bridge at ninety miles and hour in a drag race outside of town - but no accident, it would appear, as the Merc's brake line had been cut.Struggling lawyer and sometime private eye Sam McCain finds himself, not unusually, hauled into the investigation by the incorrigible Judge Esme Ann Whitney.Jealous husbands, philandering spouses, jilted girlfriends, outraged parents, a long suffering wife - Sam does not want for suspects. Or for clues. It's the conclusive evidence that surprises him and that frostily ends the Indian summer in Iowa 1961.