Secrets are not good things. Like bacteria in Petri dishes, they breed in the darkness of confinement. The women of one prominent San Antonio family have hidden their secrets for over 200 years behind softly honeyed tones and a veneer of polite society. Social standing is of prime importance; morality and honesty have never mattered. When the elderly occupant of the family mansion dies without a will, lawyers for the State locate a last surviving family member who has moved far away, still carrying the painful burden of lies, secrets, and betrayals that are the Morton legacy. She returns reluctantly, for five days spent with the court-appointed estate appraiser. Together they uncover history and treasure, revealing the perjured past of the Morton family and the deceptions inflicted upon their children and the city where they once reigned as social aristocrats. In the hot and muggy world of south Texas, a storm is brewing outside and inside the derelict mansion, culminating in one final horrifying discovery and betrayal.