Dorie Hudson, a new journalism graduate from Virginia Tech, moves to small town Daelin, GA, to work for the Daelin Beacon as the Lifestyles Editor. Within the first weeks of her time in Daelin, she finds the town up in arms about the kudzu 'sculptures' swallowing the loblolly pines on the road into Daelin. Why won't the mayor allow the nursery man Ross MacAvoy to tear down and destroy the overgrowing vines? What's hiding in the kudzu? ¿As the mystery deepens, Dorie finds most people are like the kudzu, beautiful and polite on the outside, but dead and self-serving on the inside.