For two hundred and fifty years, the LeBlancs of Tidewater Virginia - landed, rich, and proud of it - have been celebrating their French Huguenot ancestry. Each year, over an extravagant lunch and in period costume dress, they relive the beginnings of the LeBlanc line, reminding everyone of their rise from meager beginnings to a position of great stature, wealth, and privilege.

But this year's celebration goes horribly wrong. At the stroke of one, a deafening explosion brings down the massive plantation house columns, crushing every member of the family present.

As the dust settles, all fingers point to the black sheep of the family, the youngest brother, Charles LeBlanc. Long estranged from his family and living in a makeshift cabin on a spit of land off the Chesapeake, Charley has managed to make more enemies than friends - he was dishonorably discharged from the army, and then served time in prison.

Facing prison, if not execution, Charley takes off on the fugitive run of his life. With the police at his back, he makes his way through the mountains of West Virginia to find the real killer. What he didn't mean to discover were the even darker secrets about the LeBlanc blood.