Set in the remote rural community of the South, this novel tells the story of a hill farmer, Fate Laird , a man with a dream. It is the story of his struggle to give that dream reality. All his life Fate Laird has been obsessed by the desire to live in the rich farmland of the Valley, as as the novel opens he has saved up enough money to buy his farm. For his wife and himself, for his son Clay, just reaching manhood. The new life ahead promises everything he has wanted. But the Valley is ruled by one man, Book Gresham, a gross, impassive man who has deliberately used evil in order to acquire power.-- Amazon.com.