My great-great-grandfather, Thomas Maness, disappeared before his son was born. I'm the fourth generation looking for him. We're a stubborn lot.

Genealogist and former journalist Elizabeth Saunders turns her investigative skills onto her own family's century-old missing-person case. Thomas disappeared around age 26; did he die in an accident? Did he start a new life somewhere else? Could Thomas actually be Swain Maness, a gun-totin' rascal rumored to have five wives in different counties? Discouraged by brick walls, Elizabeth moves from place to place, unknowingly following in Thomas' footsteps. As new clues and an unexpected twist reopen the search for Thomas, his and Elizabeth's parallel journeys, separated by time, lead them both home.