Decades after its original publication, James Agee's last novel seems, more than ever, an American classic. For in his lyrical, sorrowful account of a man's death and its impact on his family, Agee painstakingly created a small world of domestic happiness and then showed how quickly and casually it could be destroyed.

On a sultry summer night in 1915, Jay Follet leaves his house in Knoxville, Tennessee, to tend to his father, whom he believes

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Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton studies how fire consumes flesh and bone in order to solve the mysterious death of a woman found inside a burned car in Knoxville. Meanwhile, Brockton discovers that his nemesis, medical examiner Garland Hamilton, has escaped custody and Brockton's own life is in danger.