Miss Julia, recently bereaved and newly wealthy widow, is only slightly bemused when one Hazel Marie Puckett appears at her door with a youngster in tow. But this perfectly practiced composure is quickly reduced when Hazel Marie unceremoniously announces her intentions: the child is Wesley Lloyd's bastard son and, since the man left her penniless, she's leaving little Lloyd in Miss Julia's care. Suddenly, this longtime church member and pillar of her small community finds herself in the center of an unseemly scandal -- and the guardian of a wan nine-year-old whose mere presence will turn her life upside down.

With razor wit and perfect Steel Magnolia poise, Miss Julia speaks her mind indeed -- about a robbery, a kidnapping, and all the other disgraceful goings-on that are precipitated by her husband's death. Fast-paced and charming, with a sure sense of comic drama and a cast of crazy characters, this beguiling novel will delight readers from first page to last.