It's the height of hunting season in the bush. Experienced hunter Kate Shugak and her boyfriend volunteer to help out their friend and big-game outfitter, George Perry, with a hunting trip. After successfully bagging a moose, Kate returns to camp to learn that a hunter has been shot.

After Alaskan aviation entrepreneur Finn Grant is murdered, Kate Shugak, private investigator, goes uncover to help Alaskan state trooper Liam Campbell find his killer.

The inhabitants of Niniltna are uneasy about the gold-mining company buying up tracts of land nearby, an unease shared by P.I. Kate Shugak as she probes the killings of a mine opponent and a popular ski champion-turned-company spokesperson.

"New York Times bestselling author Dana Stabenow's latest finds Kate Shugak entangled in a bitter tribal rivalry and murder One hundred years of bad blood between the villages of Kushtaka and Kuskulana come to a boil when the body of a young Kushtaka ne'er-do-well is found wedged in a fish wheel. Sergeant Jim Chopin's prime suspect is a Kuskulana man who is already in trouble in both villages for falling in love across the river. But when the suspect...

"'... though there is no fixed line between wrong and right, There are roughly zones whose laws must be obeyed.' ... It is New Year's Eve, nearly six weeks into an off-and-on blizzard that has locked Alaska down, effectively cutting it off from the outside world. But now there are reports of a plane down in the Quilak mountains. With the National Transportation Safety Board unable to reach the crash site, ex-Trooper Jim Chopin is pulled out of retirement...