Fleeing Atlanta a bad marriage, Imogene McBride heads west with her precocious, beautiful teenage daughter, Cora, when their car breaks down in a tiny North Texas town. While her mother sits out its repair, Cora wanders off to buy ice cream—and disappears without a trace.

So begins Imma’s vigil. As her waiting stretches from days and weeks into years, Imma becomes—as the town eccentric if not madwoman—a pivotal institution.  And when the local sheriff works to unravel the mystery of Cora’s disappearance, a bond develops between the aging sheriff and the eccentric woman who brings Ezra both new hope and forces him to confront his own past.

With an all-new introduction to the Baen Ebook Edition.

Clay Reynolds is the winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award.

"[Reynolds] knows how to create and sustain tension without resorting to sensationalism. His book, like its protagonist, has a stubborn integrity that you can’t help admiring. [Imma’s] metamorphosis . . . is absorbing." —New York Times