Speculators who buy the land Hunter McComb inherited from his aunt Lucy, a beloved spinster school-teacher, promise to build housing but instead establish a dump for out-of-state trash. The garbage produces lethal pollutants and a pervasive stench - and much-needed jobs for the residents of Collier, Virginia. As the landfill swells, the towns-people watch some of their own rise to become unexpected heroes and others act with startling villainy. Hunter and his wife, Sarah Rose, are largely blamed for the troubles caused by the "state-of-the-art" plant, and Sarah Rose's brother, strong and silent Berkley Paxton, is mistrusted for working there. Berkley worries that his tarnished image will cause problems for his twelve-year-old son, Jesse, who seeks solace in his drawing and in the fading memories of his mother. Reba Walker, Sara Rose's childhood rival, toughened by years of hard work and heartache, emerges as the unlikely leader of the fight to close the dump. The voices of Sarah Rose, Reba, and Jesse entwine to tell a story of love and hostility, pride and remorse, of battles won and lost, and they are bound together by the voice - and spirit - of Lucy McComb, who proves to know more about life, even after her death, than all the living do. It is Lucy who understands that the landfill forces the community to come to terms with the past and that it makes individuals confront the questions of what is valuable and what is waste, of what should be kept and what let go.