In an east Texas cemetery outside the town of Elza an elderly Gemma Crawford lays a pot of flowers on the grave of Jesse Rose. Seventy-five years earlier twelve-year-old Gemma sat high above Elza on a Ferris wheel with young Jesse, knowing even then that he would be the love of her life. But, as they sat there, the happenings on the midway below results in Jesse having to hide a body and a secret that will alter the course of their young lives. Five years later Jesse's best friend, Cliff Tidwell, is found brutally murdered and Jesse must stand trial for his death. To save him from the electric chair legendary Texas Ranger Brewster McKinney, police chief Jefferson Hightower, and an old buffalo soldier known as Cherokee-one-leg must untangle a web clues that stretch over fifty years and involve corrupt businessmen, Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, small town gangsters, and a back woods bordello. But the one clue that can set Jesse free is a secret he refuses to reveal, the secret of the summer of '36 and how the events of that summer caused what happened That Night at the Palace.