The uncle of an executed murderess relates four stories of his hometown, Oldfield, to a reporter: An elderly man pursues a romance with a younger woman, even to the grave and beyond; a wounded man on the run from creditors is rescued by a backwoods hermit with the secret to eternal life; a glass-eating carny pays the ultimate price for looking for love on the outside; and Civil War soldiers are held captive by a household of orphans with strange intentions for them.—Brian J. Wright