When John J. Macreedy steps off the train at the jerkwater town of Black Rock, he becomes the object of fear, hatred, and even a murder plot. The altruistic Macreedy came to Black Rock to hand over a posthumous military award to a local man whose son had died gallantly in the Second World War. What Macreedy couldn't know when he alighted from that train was that the town had a shameful secret that must be kept at all costs.—Alfred Jingle