James Raymond Wren, one of the city's most successful architects, wants desperately to escape the urban hell of Los Angeles and return to his roots. Back to ties that have been long forgotten and lost, buried away somewhere deep in the South. Returning to a place he's from, but never really known. To a region he believes is the answer for all of his and his young family's woes. Coming back to a town that eventually he will discover, contains things he has unwittingly ignored. Suppressed realities that will haunt and torture, ultimately destroying all that he knows. The story is filled with vivid images of the South's ignominious past. All rendered in Technicolor by a village of eerily seductive inhabitants. Townsfolk that include an ancient and corrupted chief of police, along with his childhood friend the local pedophile priest. The last glimmering ghost of the Ku Klux Klan joins in as these and many more of the town's uncannily constructed characters move this story achingly toward its macabre, stormy climax. But Backward's real surprise is the town itself, and the spooky old house it conceals. An enormous antebellum wreck bequeathed to the church. At one time part of the underground railroad. Against the backdrop of James' nightmares the truth is finally revealed. The reason for his family's abrupt dislocation. Knowledge that will forever change the course of his life, along with the town's uncertain future.