Central Kansas Library System

In a small Ozark community the Matthews family live in the shadow of tragedy. Their only daughter had died in childbirth, after the man she loved had betrayed and deserted her. Young Matt had lived his life under the shadow of a curse ; the promise to kill the man who abandoned his mother. A stranger arrives in the mountains and becomes known as "the Shepherd" because of his kindness to the people of the mountains.

"The Dane family's roots tangle deep in the Ozark Mountain town of Henbane, but that doesn't keep sixteen-year-old Lucy Dane from being treated like an outsider. Folks still whisper about her mother, a bewitching young stranger who inspired local myths when she vanished years ago. When one of Lucy's few friends, slow-minded Cheri, is found murdered, Lucy feels haunted by the two lost girls--the mother she never knew and the friend she couldn't protect....

Anne Davis is full of youthful optimism when she leaves St. Louis for the Ozark hills to teach in a one-room, eight grade schoolhouse.