Jan Kelvin works as a journalist for the New York City magazine Page, which specializes in covering literary news and trends. One morning, editor Joel Stein gives her a tough assignment: Locate and interview Walter Randolph, Pulitzer prize winning author of the book The River Flows Back. There's only one problem. Randolph, last seen near his hometown of Runyan, Tennessee, has been missing for nearly twenty years. For Jan, it's the beginning of a long, strange journey, not only through Southern culture, but behind the curtain of a nefarious world of drugs, murder, and child abuse set against the beautiful backdrop of the Appalachian Mountains. Mafia. Cops. Hit men. Every day her quest becomes more personal and dangerous. How far will she go and what will she risk to find Walter?