WITH AN UNEXPECTED PHONE CALL FROM A DISTANT ATTORNEY, THE LIVES OF TWO BROTHERS FOREVER CHANGE.

The Kelly brothers are in their early sixties and live on opposite sides of the country—Joe in Maryland and Darren in California—when they receive a call from a demanding attorney in their small hometown of Glenville, Indiana. The request: to travel to Indiana to hear the final wishes of a recently deceased former neighbor from their childhood, “Uncle” Shorty.

Travel across country to hear the final wishes of a man who appeared to own little more than an old Plymouth car and a fine looking checkerboard? The brothers see all this as a major waste of time—even though Shorty had been a kind and encouraging friend of the family. But Attorney Borland is dead serious: “I promise you, by attending this meeting and hearing Mr. Hazelton’s wishes, both of your lives could be changed forever. I suggest you arrange to get here as soon as possible.”

Returning “home” after forty years will pull Joe and Darren away from their relatively quiet family lives and thrust them into a world of boyhood memories, legendary characters, old grievances, early loves, and a precarious status that elicits power, greed, false adulation, and even crime. Their journey will be full of humor and satisfaction, but also considerable pain—will it all be worth it?