In the early 1930s, in southern Georgia, young Billy was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for the murder of Luke Hampton, a crime young Billy did not commit. During his first years in prison he trained the warden's tracking hounds, and with the help of his favorite hound, Ole Red, Billy escaped and made his way to northern Idaho.After many years of worrying about being caught and wondering who had committed the murder, he told his grandson, Trey, a retired detective, about his past and how he had escaped from prison with the help of Ole Red. Even though the murder had been committed in the 1930s, Trey told his grandfather Bill he would go to Georgia and try to find out who committed the murder. Trey got more than he bargained for when during his investigation of the old murder, he uncovered crime and corruption that had been going on for decades in his grandfather's old hometown of Hardwood, Georgia. Trey's investigation brought to light the person who murdered Luke Hampton so many years earlier and it was a shock and total surprise to him and his grandfather Bill.