[4] Originally written under the title The Seventh Day of Keziah Dane, Grafton entered the unpublished novel in an Anglo-American Book Award contest.

[5] Keziah Dane is a widow who lives "on the brink of poverty" with her children in a small Kentucky town.

A vagrant named Web gains Keziah's trust then attempts to rape her eldest daughter.

The body is dumped in the flooded town and unexpected complications ensue for the Dane family.

Reviewer Marjorie Driscoll noted that Grafton presented her "widely varied array of characters" in a "sympathetic and understanding story" while displaying her "versatility" by "making them all very real.