No one in Judge Deborah Knott's family knows the meaning of the inscription on their late mother's cigarette lighter, which young Susan Stephenson acquired near the end of World War II. Whose initials are "W.R.M." and why is it engraved with "Happy 25th -- Leslie"? Meanwhile, Kezzie Knott has discovered the body of a man who used to make whiskey for him back when he was running white lightning. What was he doing on Kezzie's land, and why was he bludgeoned on the head three separate times? While her husband, Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, investigates, Deborah meets a woman who could help her identify the lighter's original owner. For years Deborah has wondered how the daughter of a wealthy attorney could have married a widowed, semi-illiterate bootlegger, and this time she's determined to find the answer.