When two young boys disappear, one of them leaving a pool of blood behind, Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police finds himself not only tracking a ruthless and brutal killer but caught up in the intricate mysteries of the Zuni religion as well. For the dead boy was to have played a key role in an important ritual of the Zuni people. An added complication in the investigation and search is the missing boys' interest in an archeological dig that seems to be on the brink of proving a controversial theory. And the FBI's blind certainty that it's all related to a small hippy commune's drug dealing doesn't exactly help either. Leaphorn patiently tracks the murderer into the desert to a terrifying confrontation...