In 1940, the United States is hovering on the edge of entering the war in Europe. People listen to the radio and are afraid.One wintery night, in a two-family household, deep in Wisconsin farm country, four-year-old Silje Reiersen hears a knock on the door. A stranger wants shelter for the night, so the men doing chores in the barn allow the man to sleep in the hay loft overnight. The next morning, the man is found with a pitchfork stuck in his neck. Who is he? Why was he killed? By whom? The sheriff, with none of modern day's forensic tools must solve this crime.Death is an accepted part of life on a farm far from a city, but not murder. As Silje and her cousin Nils struggle to understand what has happened, and while they, along with their parents, face the growingg realization that the killer may be someone whom they know, they must also deal with rumors and discrimination against members of their household as the community itself becomes more afraid.