Lt. Jim Chee, of the Navajo Tribal police, finds a man, a Hopi who was illegally capturing an eagle at remote location on the Navajo reservation, standing with bloody hands over the body of a Navajo Tribal Policeman. Joe Leaphorn, retired from the Navajo Tribal police, is hired by a rich elderly woman to find a missing biologist who was tracking an outbreak of bubonic plague. Their paths cross again...

Jim Chee finds himself dealing with a remote possibility. Maybe the man with bloody hands is really innocent. When he finds evidence, he discovers that he has to force the FBI to look at it, and he has to examine some unwelcome evidence about his own life. Joe Leaphorn, learning more than he really wanted to know about bubonic plague as he follows the trail of the missing woman, learns that someone does not want her to be found.

A detailed and intricate mystery by a man who is knows as a Special Friend of the Navajo.

This was released by giving it to a friend in Kalama.