The Secret of Jessie Judas spans the last year in the life of a famed marine biologist and author, who has suffered most of her life from a haunting sense of something dreadful in her past. As a young girl growing up practically orphaned, with little or no education, on a nearly deserted Outer Banks island, Jessie has the good luck to meet a visiting writer, a folklorist. The writer becomes Jessie's protector, mentor and, eventually, her virtual mother.
Unknown to Jessie, her father, who has been serving time in prison since she was an infant, returns to the island, incognito. His only desire is to observe his daughter and make sure that she's safe. He has no intention of interfering in her life, if he's satisfied. He finds twelve-year-old Jessie living with her step-father, an eccentric travelling evangelist, who might well be psychopathic; but since Jessie is also under the protection of her friend, the folklorist, her father hesitates to reveal himself and intrude in her life. His hesitation to do so inadvertently triggers the event which creates in her the sense of tragedy that ever after shadows her otherwise successful life.