A fatal fire, an abandoned boy, a family ripped apart by lies and infidelity ... and the reporter who kept a small town's dirty secrets-for three decades. Haunted by the past, reporter Andrea Roberts seeks redemption when a stranger shows up asking questions. March 1978: A horrified Scoop Cuttler, shotgun on ready, lurks in the shadows as savage pit bulls fight to the death. A safe distance away, Scoop's young son huddles in a cold dark pickup truck, anxiously waiting as a storm rages. But Scoop never returns. Present-Day: Jo Satella, single and unemployed, stumbles across an old newspaper clipping while snooping through her widowed mother's Santa Monica, California, bungalow. The clipping describes how a distraught livestock hauler named Scoop Cuttler set fire to a barn full of pricey show horses only to brutally die in the blaze. Curious, Jo reaches out to Andrea Roberts, the reporter who covered the story, only to make a shocking discovery... Scoop's son, now thirty-eight, is Jo's brother-a brother Jo never knew she had. A promising job interview on the East Coast eventually leads Jo to the close-knit New Jersey town in search of her brother, the brilliant, hot-tempered Luke Cuttler. But first Jo must win over the trust of the one person standing in her way-Andrea Roberts.