A Simple Plan marks the astonishing debut of a natural born storyteller. It is a novel about a young man, unaware of his own moral fragility, who finds an immense cache of money -- and makes a seemingly plausible decision that sets his hitherto "ordinary and ordered" life on the road to chaos and horror. He is Hank Mitchell -- steady, solid, devoted husband, proud new father. He tells the story. It begins on a snowy winter afternoon. Hank is driving on a lonely country road with his brother, Jacob, and his brother's pal, when suddenly Jacob's dog leaps into the woods. Following him, the three men come upon the wreckage of a single-engine plane and the body of the pilot. Under the seat they find a duffel bag containing four million dollars in packets of hundred-dollar bills. Shocked, barely able to make sense of what they see, they try to puzzle out the right thing to do. They arrive at a seemingly simple plan, a plan that will enable them to hide, keep, and eventually share the fortune. They believe it will harm no one, put no one at risk. From the moment the plan is set in motion, Hank's orderly universe begins to crumble. He is constantly on the watch, trying to prevent his partners -- his brother, his brother's pal, and, ultimately, his wife -- from making impulsive or careless moves, triggered by panic or even impatience, that could endanger them all. But soon, himself panicked by his brother's stupidity and confusion, Hank commits a murder. And his nightmare begins. Riveting, highly charged at its core, told with extraordinary clarity, coolness, and restraint, Scott Smith's story of a man driven to acts previously unthinkable seizes the reader and never lets go. It will be compulsively read and everywhere talked about.