After graduating from Columbia, with plans to start a writing career in New York City, Arizona is called back to bayou country by tragic news. His youngest brother Douglas is dead. The circumstances are unthinkable, and Arizona is thrust into the struggles of a family he left behind.

While back in Louisiana, he's also faced by his boyhood love, Preston Montclair, and Gaston Bondurant, Arizona's secret, wealthy father whose growing public profile creates new problems for the two of them. Arizona could go back to New York, live the life he'd planned, and not have to worry about small town problems and small-minded people. But the ties that bind are strong and have him questioning where and who he's supposed to be.