River Rock, nestled on the Muscogee River's edge, like a snake in a curvy flower bed, is home to Sheriff Jack Raymer. When a seventeen-year-old girl is raped, the retired Marine, turned Sheriff, appears indifferent. Hardened and calloused from his military service, he buried his sensitivity long ago. After the sheriff and a self-interested Alabama senator encounter the rapists, their attitudes drastically change. On the River's Edge takes on the far-reaching effects of rape on its victims, and everyone they touch. Each discovers things within themselves; things they never thought possible - the dark, the ugly, the evil, as well as the tender, sweet, and good.