Prodigal son Duddy Doogan has a promise to keep. He is going home, to a place where his eccentric storytelling kin await his first visit since his daddy went missing two years ago. Home to where a powerful river carves an age-old border between Florida and Alabama, dividing the land and people living there. Home to a family tree moss-draped with secrets and lies, forgotten memories, and old mysteries buried in its roots. Haunted by the trauma of a childhood accident he can't remember, Duddy must excavate the bones of his twisted family history to put his broken life back together. But when tragedy strikes, a promise to return home suddenly becomes a dangerous quest to reclaim his father's remains from a long-lost uncle living deep in the Alabama swampland. For Duddy Doogan, a journey into the heart of darkness will lead him to a shattering revelation about his traumatic past, a secret truth hiding in plain sight and powerful enough to alter the course of Perdido River history for generations to come.