Henry Mathews is a young, ambitious associate at a top Chicago law firm. Called back to his tiny hometown of Council Grove, Kansas, to execute the will of Tyler Crandall, the town's richest man, Henry becomes enmeshed in a web of long-hidden secrets. For the beneficiary of Crandall's wealth -- a homeless derelict called the Birdman -- hides the key to the town's real history behind his apparent madness. Soon, what began as a legal battle becomes a spiritual journey stretching back to Henry's mysterious experience at a seminary years before. As he is sucked into a maelstrom of money and politics -- and a tragic love affair -- Henry discovers that right and wrong are more complex than he imagined, and that black and white are melding into a troublesome shade of gray.