On a warm May Friday in 1963, a mammoth tornado hurls across the empty plains toward the little town of Graham, Oklahoma. The writhing column of destruction a mile wide and eight miles high is not just on a collision course with the town, but with the lives of four of its residents - each of whom has already planned their own personal rendezvous with death that day. Jonas Cunningham has reached the end of his rope, now he lives only to free his precious Maggie from the fog of Alzheimer's. His 16-year-old granddaughter, Joy, is desperate, too. She's pregnant and scared. And sees only one action that can save her - an abortion. Joy's father, Reverend Mac MacIntosh has lost his wife and his faith and on Friday plans to and "kill and " his ministry. But as Mac meets daily with a strange, mystical death row inmate during the final five days of her life, everything begins to change. Set to be executed at five o'clock that Friday, Princess knows things she can't possibly know about Mac's life and sees things she can't possibly see. And she is determined to carry a mystery to her grave, an incredible secret about the little sister she confessed to beheading 14 years ago. As the monster tornado bears down on them, the suspense tightens. All four of the people who'd penciled in and "death and " on their calendars for that day in may actually do confront eternity in a thriller climax. But only one of them comes to the crossroads of life and death by the path they'd planned and leaves with the result they expected. Which one?