Cody Marsh's domineering, embittered mother is the only family she has ever known, until her grandfather arrives. He brings with him the acceptance and kindness previously missing in her life, and his death a short time after they meet leaves her empty and yearning. Defying her mother for the first time, Cody sets out for the boyhood home of her grandfather -- Wallace, Idaho -- to find connections to him, to find her place in her family, to find peace within herself. Instead, her search lands her at the scene of a double homicide and Cody's discoveries of her grandfather's past become entwined in a history very much alive. The bordellos, politics, and silver mines of the past reach into the present, driving at least one of her new acquaintances to acts of desperation. Cody must find the strength to face not only private failures and the ghosts of old memories, but betrayal that will strike at her newfound courage.

A quest for her roots, and new family responsibilities, give Cody Marsh reasons to settle in Wallace, Idaho. As the curator at a mining museum, she takes on a project mapping the old Nine Mile Cemetery. The history of the place fascinates her, but a solitary headstone, engraved only with 'Sparrow', nags at her with the persistence of a haunting. When a body is discovered, Cody has no reason to believe there is any connection to the mysterious headstone. However, as she follows Sparrow's winding tale into secrecy, betrayal, and loss, an attempt on Cody's life proves a link. Hurt and scared, Cody flees to the safety of those she loves...which is exactly where the killer wants her.