Mudgirl is a child abandoned in the silty flats of the Black Snake River. Mudgirl survives by an accident of fate--or destiny. After her rescue, the well-meaning couple who adopt Mudgirl quarantine her poisonous history behind the barrier of their middle-class values. But the bulwark of the present proves surprisingly vulnerable to the agents of the past.

Meredith "M.R." Neukirchen is the first woman president of an Ivy League university. Her commitment to her career and moral fervor are all-consuming. Involved with a secret lover and concerned with the intensifying crisis of the American political climate, M.R. is confronted with challenges to her leadership that test her in ways she could not have anticipated. A reckless trip to upstate New York thrusts M.R. into an unexpected psychic collision with Mudgirl and the life M.R. believes she has left behind.