GENERAL & LITERARY FICTION. A mysterious veiled woman slips into the home of the secretive Judge Ostrander in the town of Shelby. The people of the town rush after her to protect their respected judge but in the confusion and furore that follow, a servant of the house dies. In the solemn atmosphere succeeding this drama, the veiled woman refuses to show her face, insisting on telling her story from under her swathes of purple veil. Her name is Deborah and she is the widow of a convicted murderer, a man sentenced to death many years before by Judge Ostrander. She took her young daughter and fled the town in shame when it happened, changing their names and ignoring the past. Now she must confront the truth. By a strange twist of fate Deborah's daughter is engaged to be married to Judge Ostrander's estranged son.