A social outcast involved in a clandestine love affair with an American Indian football player from her high school witnesses a violent crime while waiting for him. How can she come forward to give up one secret but keep the other hidden? 'Near the End of August' is a puzzle, intercutting between Shelley's eventual interview with a police detective and the events she describes -- and some that she does not share. Only when we have all the pieces can we understand the power of her journey, her guilt, and her ultimate victory.