days. Is this wisp of time enough to save a life, a family, or even a nation? As shrewd as he is charismatic, Congressman Nathan Perry has strategically vanquished each of his opponents to emerge as the champion of the Freedom Party in the presidential race of the year 2000. He is driven by a secret agenda that allies him with a powerful, unscrupulous mentor and that threatens to divide the Union politically and racially. Clearly, Perry's meteoric rise has not been without moral compromise. Neither has it been without a desperate inner urgency.

Since the death of his father, Nathan and his mother, Dr. Olivia Perry, have grappled with the specter of a generational evil that kills the firstborn Perry males at or not long after age forty. This was just the stuff of old family superstitions passed down from antebellum days...wasn't it? But now, the presidential campaign has led Congressman Perry back to his hometown, Vicksburg, Mississippi, which proudly and joyfully receives its native son. However, not all are happy about his bid for the White House. Opponents seize this time to strike, and forces for and against Nathan Perry clash--as his fortieth birthday relentlessly approaches.