It's 1995, and Matt Bradshaw is back in Mayflower, Kansas. After earning a PhD at a huge East Coast university whose culture has always befuddled him, he's been hired as dean of students at Hopewell College. Hopewell is a small school where Matt once played ball, learned to love the study of history, and always felt at home.

But as Matt settles into Mayflower, he finds himself in yet another enigmatic environment. The college is on the brink of bankruptcy. The president dies. When his successor takes over soon after the funeral, some strange developments begin to unfold, all apparently calculated to assure the downfall of the school.

Who is after Hopewell College? Why do they want to see it closed? Matt begins to sense that he might represent the only hope for Hopewell--if he can find his way through a maze of half-truths and hidden motives that cloud what's really going on in this town.

The Heartland File explores the underside of rural America, where people live with one another's secrets . . . and where the decisions others make for them are the most secretive of all.