Old Texas, Alabama, 1911. Located far away and amidst burnt cornfields, the small community suffers not only from the aftermath of the Civil War. E.O. Smonk, a gun-happy, one-eyed farmer, terrorizes the town, particularly dozens of widows and young girls whom he preys upon. When he is to be put on trial, Smonk manages to escape the lynch mob. However, there seems to be a connection between Smonk, the mysterious religious widow cult, and a group led by a Christian deputy sheriff who is pursuing a murderous underage prostitute along the Gulf Coast. Following in the footsteps of Faulkner and McCarthy, U.S. author Tom Franklin combines elements of Southern Gothic and Western noir, exposing in his grotesque tale the roots of the beleaguered American nation, which often associates freedom with the law of the strongest.