Haint Blue is a story of century-old strife, passion, grisly violence, liars' tales and local legends set in Beaufort, deep in the heart of the South Carolina Lowcountry. In 1986 a novice businessman, Kip Drummond, rescued a sentimental landmark--the Lady's Island Oyster Factory. But six years later he finds himself pressured by corporate greed and paralyzed by Lowcountry desperation. On the one side, spurred by plans to replace the run-down factory with a megamillion dollar waterfront development, a trio of predators from Philadelphia enlist the aide of a local mole and an Italian connection to deliver a no-holds-barred squeeze for the sale. On the opposite side, fueled by rumors of the undisclosed sale, the restless Gullah workers prod their ex-Marine foreman, "Gunny" Brewer, to go head-to-head with Kip in an effort to squelch the deal, knowing his failure would cost them the livelihood that had sustained them for decades. Caught in the maelstrom, Kip fumbles the waning support of his bombshell wife, Sandi, who longs to return to her socialite life in Charleston and becomes a willing prey. When Kip turns to friends, he finds himself at a table in a former slave's shack with Madam Ayanda, a tarot reader who channels Kip's energy through cards that unveil a secret which Kip had fought desperately to conceal, but which he would need to reveal to beat a deadly hex on him.