SYNOPSIS:

In 1920s Virginia, eccentric rural clergyman William A.R. Goodwin collaborates with renowned philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. on a series of secret land purchases to piece together what will grow into the living historical shrine - and moneymaking national tourist attraction - now known as Colonial Williamsburg. But the duo's plans hit a snag when the bodies of murdered African-American girls are discovered in the cellars of several disputed properties. With lynchings on the rise nationwide, could the girls be the victims of a Ku Klux Klan terrorist campaign? Or is a local lunatic, escaped from Williamsburg's Eastern State (mental) Hospital, responsible for their deaths? Or - is someone simply trying to scuttle the Rockefeller deal to keep "outside interests" from awakening drowsy "Lotusburg" from its long slumber as a backwater ex-state capital? And who is the mysterious woman who seems to be stalking Rockefeller himself? Small-town lawyer Vernon Geddy and his assistant, Mary Inman, must investigate, away from the prying eyes of local journalists, and quietly discover the truth - before Rockefeller takes his money elsewhere...or one of his bodyguards makes a tragic mistake.