A stranger comes to Hersey, bringing bigotry, selling lies, and sowing distrust, causing some to flee and some to fight: Kat and John for their clinic, Kate and Mel for Sammy, Becca for love, and others for survival. Place in the Circle tangles heart strings and funny bones with the eighty-five year old Baxter twins, who say what others only think; with Harley and Verna, who find love on the banks of the Mississippi; and two fear-provoking, eye-rolling wolves. The circle of love, family, and friendship is a shelter in the howling winds of change.