In the late seventies, a young Californian takes a job in South Carolina. On his first day, he is introduced to a stunningly beautiful, but married, woman, the black janitor, a hard-drinking electrical engineer, and a couple dozen assorted misfits. In the first week, the janitor is found hanging from a light pole, and the married woman begins paying attention to him. On his way to work on Monday morning, the vacant field that he thought was a farmers’ market contains the charred remains of three crosses.

 

After his divorce, Mason is desperately in need of a job and equally in need of a woman, but what is Jill’s motive for coming onto him so blatantly? And where do the bruises come from that she tries to hide beneath makeup that her faultless face doesn’t need? It doesn’t take long for Mason to realize that leaving California was a major mistake. He is now in a world where he can buy a gun at a gas station, but can’t buy a broom on Sunday, and every other Saturday night, the field where the crosses are burned is full of police cars.