Owen Foster is pulled from his elite New Orleans boarding school when his father's assets are seized and, back in his small town, begins to piece together his father's past despite mounting danger. Owen Foster's mother shows up at his elite New Orleans boarding school to tell him his father has vanished-- after embezzling from the family business, the single largest employer in his small Louisiana town, and draining the employees' retirement accounts....

Ten stories trace the connections between four generations of one Louisiana family from 1939 when a young girl leaves school to help support her family to 2006 when an eighty-year-old woman embarks on a book tour.

Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. Khalid still visits in dreams, and King must keep these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform his family. It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. But just days before he died, Khalid...