Hopemore, Georgia, county magistrate MacLaren Yarbrough is having a couple of weird weeks. Hopemore folks don't expect to find a buffalo grazing on the front lawn, but that's exactly what Mac discovers early one autumn morning. The buffalo turns out to be the campaign mascot for gubernatorial candidate Lance Bullock - the son of a man Mac has never expected, or wanted, to see again. He is a part of her life she would prefer to keep hidden . . .