In the summer of 1956, there is little for Sheriff LeRoy Chalmer to do in the law abiding county seat with a population of no more than two thousand. All that suddenly changes when Ekbert Pewzer, a notorious small-town bully, is found beaten to death. The deceased had left terror in his wake wherever he went; nevertheless, it is the sworn duty of the insecure sheriff to track down the killer. Instead of narrowing his list of suspects, however, he finds the list growing. It seems that everybody had a reason to kill Pewzer, or perhaps have him killed. Sheriff Chalmer and his naive young deputy have their workout for them. Suddenly, the murder investigation gets press attention, and what was once town business is now highly publicized. Chalmer is under scrutiny, but the added attention also serves to bring back ghosts from his past. The good sheriff was recently divorced by a woman he still loves, but in order to solve this case, he must overcome remorse and resentment and discover who murdered a man the whole town wanted dead.