The return of Harry Todd Sutcliff after 20 years to the Western Pennsylvania mill town of Furnass rekindles the competition with his younger brother Dickie who took over the family's prosperous real estate firm. Dickie Sutcliff finds himself dealing with a possible take-over of the business by his brother, as well as the problems of developing the former site of Buchanan Steel into an industrial park, the feeble financial maneuvering of an old friend, and setting up housekeeping with a younger woman. Both brothers are dealing with the ghost of a beloved sister, and with their aged mother, Kitty, a local eccentric and keeper of the family's secrets. Secrets that can heal or destroy.