On the night of the decade's worst blizzard, a boy discovers the naked body of a young woman.  No one can identify her, so she is buried in the local cemetery with a simple gravestone.

Seventeen years later, the mysterious dead girl -- the 'Virgin of Small Plains' -- has inspired a local myth.  Strange miracles have visited those who faithfully tend her grave, and the town becomes a haven for spiritual seekers and the terminally ill.

When former inhabitant Mitch Newquist reappears and a tornado devastates Small Plains, the truth begins to emerge.  What really happened seventeen years ago?  Why did Mitch vanish on the night the Virgin's body was found? And why are some of the town's leading citizens so determined that the truth remain buried?