People hold secrets, many never disclosed. Pitt Lewis, fresh from a writing assignment about Texas drug trafficking that leaves him with doubts about his future, searches for reasons why Carla, a friend, has been assaulted and left with a blocked memory. Does she hold a secret that may affect her daughter? Has she shared the secret with her employer? Has her ex-husband learned the secret many years after their divorce? And does a long forgotten memory about basement stairs of a pre-Civil War mansion hold the answer for Pitt? When Carla's ex-husband disappears and the behavior of her employer becomes erratic, Pitt sets aside a long-sought romance and begins a search for Pugsley Tannon, following a towboat's path from the mouth of the Ohio River into West Virginia.