Thaddeus (Taad) Aaron Lindenhall is the sixth generation of the Lindenhall lineage living in an agricultural community, Atkinsville, in southeastern Kansas. The family owns two sections of land, one of which Taad leased to others and the other being the Old World Forest. Taad is the largest retail merchant in town, and the family name enjoys a high level of notoriety and prominence in the community. Residents and farmers in and around Atkinsville understand that the Lindenhalls have no intention to level the Wood, as it's called by Taad, and allow local grain farmers to exploit it for farming. Westerly tips off Taad. That one local rancher-farmer, Clayton Jurkins, is determined to harvest the forest and farm it, but worse still, he aims to drive the Lindenhall clan from the area and gain control of Lindenhall's lands. Taad plans a defense to protect his family from Jurkins's efforts to disrupt the peace, then (with the help of Elenore, an Overseer) discovers that someone has buried bodies in his Wood, and the hunt is on to find a psychopath in their midst.