In 1953, Tom Pender was a normal country boy growing up in rural Alabama. When his little friend Jenny went missing, the men of the community, with both the sheriff and police departments, formed a search party to search the Sipsey Swamp.

As Tom stood in his backyard hearing the men in the swamp calling for Jenny, he realized he was the only one who knew of her secret place high on the hill. Tom rushed to Jenny's playhouse, fearing that she might be injured. There he found her nude body covered with pine straw.

The overbearing sheriff took one look at the crime scene and decided only a kid would attempt to hide her in plain sight. Only one kid knew where to look--Tom Pender.

As twelve-year-old Tom bends under the strain of being accused of murder, only one person can help him. She is a kind older neighbor Tom knows as Aunt Lucy. Neither Tom nor Aunt Lucy can imagine the heartbreak that will come when the murder is solved and the killer is revealed.