After losing his wife and newborn son to the fever, Lige Worley moved up on Pouter Mountain believing that isolation was the only way he could stave off further sorrow; after all, wasn't it people the only thing that could truly empty a heart? For years Lige has made and consumed the finest moonshine money can buy, and that and his little shelter on Pouter was enough to do him. That is, until he happens upon a murdered young woman, her still alive baby and a pocket-watch. Not long after leaving the woman where she lay and taking the baby back up the mountain to safety, Lige realizes that he cannot care for the child alone, and he knows what he must do. He takes the baby to Salter Ridge, to Danceray, even though he also knows that seeing Danceray again will open up the deepest wounds of his past.