Book of Days

Book of Days plays with the undertow of political agenda in the small town of Dublin Missouri, with a successful cheese factory at its economic hub, a well-established amateur theater to nourish the souls of those artistically inclined and a Christian church that purports to be the moral backbone of the community. But this is the sort of place where the fact that everyone knows everybody else’s business already serves to keep most unacceptable behavior within reasonable bounds. Until that is, the pillar of the community is killed in a hunting accident in the middle of a monster tornado. The authorities are willing to overlook the incongruities reported by the only witness but not Ruth, the bookkeeper at the cheese factory. Suddenly emboldened by her role as St. Joan in a production at the local theatre, she smells foul play. She refuses to let it go, even when her zeal places both her husband’s job at the cheese factory and her mother-in-law’s at the nearby Christian college in jeopardy.