When Rick Ryder comes across a body at the bottom of a 30-foot waterfall in the Blue Ridge mountains, he has no idea the death will put his work, as well as his life and friendships, in jeopardy. On the same property, police discover a large patch of high potency marijuana, and soon 70-year-old Queenie Weaver is charged with murder and manufacturing a controlled substance. Rick races the clock to prove her innocence before she loses the land that has been in her family for generations. More lives are threatened as Rick uncovers evidence that the death and the marijuana plot are part of a conspiracy to acquire thousands of acres of mountain property. Skill, luck, perseverance and, what his wife refers to as stupidity in the face of danger, lead Rick to a climactic showdown which will either exonerate Queenie or end with more killing. The future of a way of life in the mountains hangs in the balance.