A strict Christian woman, shy, unworldly; twenty-eight-year-old Lenora La Roche is a librarian in Joseph City (fictional), Louisiana. She's lived with a horrible, unsolved family mystery in Joseph City for most of her life. Lenora's grandmother, Adelaide La Roche, who raised her, taught her the Bible and how to love God. It's how Lenora approached life: with a sense of purity and kindness toward the world. A wicked house fire kills Adelaide. But hidden in a closet was a metal charred box. It had survived the fire. A fireman found it. It was turned over to Lenora. What's in the box shocks Lenora. It's the unsolved family mystery. She can solve it now: evidence is in the charred box. Chicago, Chicago. She will run off to Chicago with a daring scheme in her of sin and revenge. Murder. Mercury Moon, a Chicago blues legend, awaits her.