Small-town grudges, a hidden ledger of sins, and one very smart hen: Tally Reynolds is about to find out that in Thistle Creek, the past never stays buried.

When Tally inherits her grandmother’s farmhouse, she expects woodsmoke and quiet pastures. Instead, she finds the town surveyor face-down in her creek. The local Sheriff calls it a "slip and fall," but the heavy boot print in the mud tells a different story.

Someone is redrawing the map of Thistle Creek, and they’ve carved a path right through Tally’s front door.

Armed with her grandmother’s secret ledger—a collection of the town's deepest scandals—and a sharp-witted Wyandotte hen named Shirley, Tally must peel back the layers of her new home. But with a massive real estate deal threatening to pave over the evidence and a shadowy intruder stalking her woods, the truth might be the last thing she ever uncovers.