It was the long hot summer of '69. Perfect in every way. Except for one small murder.
In Sweet Valley, Arkansas, everyone knows that Cherry and Baby are best friends. Working side by side at the pickle plant through the long hot summer of '69 they watch as their friends leave for the Vietnam war. But only when the president of their high-school class is killed in the jungle, do they realise that their friends might also never come back.
For Cherry, brought up strictly in the Holiness Church, breaking the commandments with a mysterious newcomer, Tripp Barlow, is a secret she plans never to reveal. Until it appears that she's not the only one with something to hide. When a body is pulled from the bottom of the lake, the secrets threaten to sweep away everything Cherry has ever believed in, leaving only a chill wind in their wake.