In the immense heat of an August night, a shot rings out across a withered cotton field, and in an instant, a family is shattered.

From the wonderland of a young man, wild and free on the rolling plains of West Texas, to the darkest horrors of Vietnam, Trace Clement is pursued by the abiding and distant presence of his grandfather, Fowler Clement, a man haunted by fidelity to the terms of a dark and unbearable promise.