Dessie Marie Pennell enjoys her simple country life on Brushy Mountain- until, that is, her beloved cousin Ida, better known among their neighbors as Turkey Holler Bill, turns up dead. It first appears that Turkey Holler suffered a fall on her property and managed to drag herself back to her cabin, where her body was discovered. But then a Yankee speculator by the name of Jim Clanton shows up with designs on buying Turkey Holler's land. As Clanton and the crooked local sheriff begin pressuring Dessie and her mountain neighbors into selling their property, it seems that Turkey Holler's death may have not been an accident after all. Those who refuse to sell face threats from the sheriff and Jim Clanton- before some of them begin dying under questionable circumstances. Brushy Mountain and the town of Moravian Falls, where people have long counted on each other for mutual support, become a place of suspicion. And the outsider Jim Clanton isn't the only suspect stirring the pot. Old grievances arise among neighbors who feel their families have been cheated out of mountain property. Dessie and Turkey Holler's daughter, Hattie Mae, deal bravely with the charged atmosphere on Brushy Mountain as the danger comes closer and closer to their door. The reckoning comes and the mystery is solved one morning right in Dessie's front yard.