The ball starts rolling when Sue-Ann McKeown, editor of The Pine Oak Courier, finds a zonked-out teenager in her woods. When it turns out that he has escaped from a juvenile detention center long rumored to abuse its charges, Sue-Ann senses that she's on a new case. But the kid goes missing, and Sue-Ann has to find him--especially given that Sgt. Joe Bickley of the local sheriff's office is threatening to "out" Sue-Ann and her girlfriend unless she produces the boy. Then a Courier reporter who is investigating the juvenile center is nearly killed, and Sue-Ann realizes she has a lot more to worry about than putting out a newspaper. This is the third and most exciting novel in the Small Town Series.