Alma DeGeer Dunahew is the mother of three and the maid for a prominent family in West Table, Missouri. Her husband is mostly absent. In 1929, her scandalous, beloved younger sister is one of 42 killed in an explosion at the local dance hall. Who is to blame? Mobsters from St. Louis? Embittered local gypsies? The preacher who decried the loose morals of the waltzing couples? Could it have been a colossal accident? Alma thinks she knows the answer.