For years, the town of Silver Bell, Arkansas has quietly mourned the hospital fire that claimed the lives of nine of its residents--the town doctor, a young expectant mother, and seven infants. So, when journalist Finn Hardwick is assigned the story as part of a national thirtieth anniversary memorial service, he arrives at the town ready to interview its residents, thinking they'll be ready to share and eager to make headlines. He isn't prepared for the resistance. Or for what appears to be a collective unwillingness to answer his questions. Faced with one roadblock after another, Finn enlists the help of Billi Ellis, the young motel receptionist that everyone in the town seems to like. Maybe she can get them to open up to him. Maybe she can help him make sense of everything he keeps uncovering. Especially the unexpected tie this tragedy appears to have to his own life. A tie that leads him directly to the old woman who seems to hold the key to everything. The woman everyone avoids...the woman they call "dirty"...the woman who hasn't spoken a word to anyone since the day the hospital burned.