Berendt meets wealthy antiques dealer Jim Williams during a private tour of the grand Mercer House.

Danny Hansford storms into Mercer House drunk and shouting, revealing his explosive personality to Berendt.

Lady Chablis calls Berendt to deliver the shocking news that Williams has shot Danny Hansford dead.

District Attorney Spencer Lawton indicts Williams for first-degree murder, surprising most Savannah residents who expected lesser charges.

Despite facing murder charges, Williams holds his annual Christmas party at the Mercer House.

The first trial opens with Lawton arguing that Williams staged the crime scene to fabricate a self-defense story.

The first jury finds Williams guilty of murder and sentences him to life in prison.

A judge overturns Williams's conviction after discovering Lawton introduced falsified evidence about a bullet hole.

Williams takes Berendt to meet Minerva, a voodoo priestess and common-law widow of a legendary practitioner.

Williams and Minerva perform a midnight graveyard ritual to appease Hansford's restless spirit.

A second jury finds Williams guilty of murder for the second time and sentences him to life imprisonment.

Williams runs his antiques business by phone from jail, pretending to buyers that he is calling from home.

Williams confesses to Berendt that Hansford's gun had the safety on and that he staged parts of the crime scene.

At the fourth trial in Augusta, a jury finds Williams not guilty after just fifteen minutes of deliberation.

Williams dies of pneumonia in Mercer House, collapsing in the same room where he shot Hansford.

John Berendt enters the world of wealthy antiques dealer Jim Williams, whose volatile assistant Danny Hansford is soon shot dead inside the Mercer House. Williams claims self-defense and is charged with first-degree murder by an ambitious district attorney, shocking a Savannah society that expected the charges to simply disappear. Despite spending enormous sums on top lawyers, Williams is convicted twice, only for the courts to overturn both rulings on procedural grounds. Two more trials follow, including an unprecedented fourth, which ends in acquittal after just fifteen minutes of deliberation. Williams returns to Mercer House as a free man, but dies of pneumonia months later in the very room where he shot Hansford.

The murder, the trials, and Williams's fate.

Mary Harty takes Berendt to Bonaventure Cemetery and regales him with stories of Savannah's colorful and dangerous past.

Berendt meets neighbor Joe Odom at a party where Odom casually taps into a neighbor's electricity supply.

Berendt meets eccentric inventor Luther Driggers at a diner; Driggers later shows him the poison the whole town fears.

Driggers's attempt to show off glow-in-the-dark goldfish at the Purple Tree bar ends in a disgusting failure.

Bartender Moon Tompkins is caught stealing from Emma's piano bar and flees with the entire contents of the register.

A cigarette left in a trash can burns down Odom's townhouse, forcing him to find a new place to squat.

Lady Chablis sweet-talks Berendt into driving her home and immediately introduces him to everyone as her personal chauffeur.

Chablis quits her show over docked pay and leads fans carrying every gown she owns into the street.

Lee Adler takes Berendt on a tour of his Victorian district renovation and affordable housing projects.

Berendt attends a Married Women's Card Club party and hears gossip sharply contradicting Adler's account of his own career.

Odom is sued by construction workers for bounced checks and ends up helping one plaintiff rewrite his own complaint.

Williams is held in the pod, a special jail cell reserved for homosexual and mentally unstable inmates.

Williams arranges a thank-you party at the Mercer House for his supporters, coordinating every detail from his jail cell.

An FBI report names Savannah the murder capital of the United States, stunning the community.

Williams throws his first Christmas party in eight years after his acquittal, carefully rebuilding his guest list card by card.

Before the murder dominates the story, Berendt immerses himself in Savannah by meeting its most unforgettable residents. He discovers the city through the storytelling of Mary Harty, befriends the charming con man Joe Odom, and encounters eccentric figures like the unstable inventor Luther Driggers and the flamboyant drag queen Lady Chablis. Financial schemes, bar fires, stolen cash registers, and a parade of gowns through city streets paint a portrait of a city where eccentricity is not just tolerated but celebrated. The murder trial forces Savannah to reckon with its darker realities, including an FBI report naming it the nation's murder capital. Through it all, the social rituals of parties, tours, and gossip continue, and Williams ultimately throws his first Christmas party in eight years after walking free.

The colorful characters and schemes that define Savannah.

Berendt decides to make Savannah his second home after being captivated by its eccentric beauty and characters.

Art student Corinne meets Hansford, who tours her through the Mercer House and acts as though he owns it.

Hansford takes Corinne to Bonaventure Cemetery at night and admits he has nothing to live for.

Hansford proposes marriage to Corinne after knowing her three hours, then slaps her across the face when she refuses.

Williams tells police he acted in self-defense, claiming Hansford grabbed a gun and fired at him first.

Prosecution evidence reveals there was no gunshot residue on Hansford's hands, directly undermining Williams's self-defense claim.

Odom jokes during the St. Patrick's Day parade that Berendt is filling his book with drag queens and murderers.

New defense lawyer Seiler decides to address Williams's homosexual relationship with Hansford openly at the second trial.

Williams admits on the witness stand to a sexual relationship with Hansford, visibly shocking the jury.

The Georgia Supreme Court overturns Williams's second murder conviction and orders a third trial.

Seiler discovers that police lied about bagging Hansford's hands at the crime scene, creating a powerful new defense argument.

Williams decides not to reveal his true account to Seiler after hearing the new unbagged-hands evidence changes the picture.

Juror Cecilia Tyo alone refuses to vote guilty for Williams, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial.

Minerva tells Berendt she believes Williams lied to the court and murdered Hansford in a moment of genuine anger.

Berendt and Minerva visit Hansford's neglected grave at Bonaventure Cemetery, where Minerva claims to hear Hansford laughing.

From the moment Berendt decides to plant himself in Savannah, he witnesses a series of decisions and revelations that slowly expose the city's hidden nature. The story of Hansford—his volatility, his resignation to an early death, his brief encounter with Corinne—sets the stage for understanding the murder that follows. The trial hinges on shifting evidence: missing gun residue, a staged crime scene, and a confession Williams makes only to Berendt. Defense lawyer Seiler's bold strategy to confront Williams's sexuality, a lone holdout juror, and new evidence about unbagged hands all tip the scales at different moments. In the end, Minerva's quiet revelation to Berendt suggests that legal victory and moral truth are very different things.