Pinion, Minnesota: a huge city of all of seven hundred folks who define the phrase 'small town'. Nothing has ever happened in Pinion and nothing ever will... until the mayor of sorts comes up with a scheme to put Pinion on the map. He's heard of a place where a floating image of the Virgin Mary turned the whole town into a shrine, attracting thousands of curious people and making the townsfolk rich overnight. Why not stage a prank in Pinion and do the same? What could go wrong? And then a dead body shows up. It turns out that lots can go wrong with a get-rich-quick scheme like this one... and lots will. It'll take everything Virgil Flowers has to put things to right - before someone else dies.