If anyone knows Death; Penn Cage does. He; himself; has sent 16 men to their fate as District Attorney; and killed one by his own hand. And now his beautiful young wife is gone too; leaving him alone with their young daughter. He decides to go home; home means Natchez; Mississippi; and the ghosts of his past. There he stumbles over a long-forgotten crime - the death of a black man in '68 - which could explain not only his own life; but that of the whole community. A community which seems to have been playing the quiet game for the last 30 years...