The dark earth in the piedmont of North Carolina's Randolph County is heavy with bright red clay. And it is this same rich soil that attracts many of the South's most skilled potters. Also drawn to this region is the visiting judge Deborah Knott, who is there for decidedly different reasons. Deborah faces the most exasperating case a judge can handle--overseeing the equitable distribution of marital property. The antagonists are James Lucas Nordan and Sandra Kay Hitchcock, both potters who are bitterly divorcing after almost twenty-five years of marriage.

As creative as it was stormy, the Nordans' history together produced great artistic achievements. Much of the credit for this stellar legacy can go to Amos Nordan, James Lucas's father and the proud clan patriarch. At the same time, old Amos is no stranger to tragedy. Two years earlier, his more talented son, Donny, apparently committed suicide . . . in a manner so scandalous that Amos still can't bear to speak of it.

Suddenly, amid the petty bickering, an even more gruesome death strikes the Nordans again. Violence, seemingly borne out of Providence, stalks the family homestead as the sins of the past catch up with the Nordan family. Judge Knott knows she must summon all her considerable insight into the darkest entanglements of the human heart, if she is to stop a most human specter, well-crafted in the art of murder.