A talented sculptor from New York, Richard Riconi, at the dawn of his not very happy career, created an amazing sculpture that had a strange power over the souls and destinies of many people. After his death, his son Quentin travels to distant North Georgia in hopes of redeeming his father's first creation. But, turning to Ursula Powell, the current owner of the sculpture, he discovers that everything is much more complicated than he first imagined, and that around this sculpture and here, in this bearish corner, real Shakespearean passions are playing out...