This tale of love and revolution takes place in 1975 in picturesque Charlottesville, Virginia. Like many other famous works of fiction, Jefferson Country is a roman a clef-it presents real events in a fictionalized framework and uses fictitious characters and real people to advance its conflicts. Jefferson Country's author, who writes under a pseudonym, ties its parallel plots together in the cult murder of Roberta Wiley. Henry Tilghman is the prime suspect. He is drawn into a love relationship with Claire Fox as she helps him decipher the bizarre pictogram on Roberta's body and unravel the mystery that underlies her execution-and saves him from the gallows! In the course of their investigation, Henry and Claire learn that the Age of Aquarius is about to dawn and that a cosmic cleansing must be completed before it can begin. They also discover that a great societal reordering is underway and that the world is about to undergo a devastating transformation. The agents of this upheaval have gathered in the hills and dales around Thomas Jefferson's historic residence. They are all powerful, doctrinaire, and capable murder. And each is wearing a weird medallion with the ox skull Henry copied from Roberta's body! The two sleuths soon discover the same icon in the frieze on Jefferson's parlor mantle. Murder! Revolution! Thomas Jefferson! The relentless power of the stars! What's going on?