A black man's entanglement with a white family leads to trouble in this historical novel set in Depression Era Mississippi.

To everyone in the small town of Linville, Mississippi, Jubal Jefferson is known simply as Dummy. A large black man who almost never speaks, he is forever pulling his mother's laundry wagon around town. Little else is known about him-apart from the fact that his father disappeared after the flood of 1927.

For as long as anybody can remember, the Dunaway family have been hard-working, decent people. They are a perfect white family in a town sharply divided along racial lines. But appearances can be deceiving, and lines are meant to be crossed. When the family's good fortune is nearly destroyed, the children find an unlikely friend in Jubal.

After fire engulfs the Dunaway family home, Jubal risks his life to save the children. But his act of heroism comes into question when the mother is found dead. Now Jubal faces his greatest fear-coming under suspicion in a community that offers no second chances to people like him.