Before colourful nonagenarian war hero officer Edward Duncan dies, he leaves a mandate for his grandson Randol - to safeguard the family's proud Southern military legacy. Randol, wheelchairbound from a car accident as a young man, buries his grandfather, and learns that his father, a Vietnam veteran, is running an illicit empire with Randol's half-brother, Jerod. He also finds his teenage son smoking pot (and wearing Goth t-shirts that violate his school dress code). When Jerod brings the gorgeous Annie down south and parks her in their South Carolina home, the family maid Volusia, 'who would be quick to ram a bar of soap into a foul mouth', sees through her immediately. Jerod and his father, however, are blind to what Volusia sees so easily and it's up to Randol to hold the family together. John Jeter's debut is a powerfully compelling story about one man's mission to preserve the ideals of honor and loyalty that were passed down to him.