Although it is spring in Tamarack County, MN, a darkness looms over the townspeople of Aurora and the Ojibwe of the Iron Lake Reservation. Kristi Reinhardt is dead, and the blame falls on Lonnie Thunder, a young Ojibwe man known to deal both drugs and child pornography.

Former sheriff Cork O'Connor, now working as a part-time PI, is called to a meeting with Alex Kingbird, leader of the Red Boyz, an Ojibwe gang rumored to be part of the local drug trade. Alex wants to offer Kristi's father justice to avert further violence, and he has called on part-Ojibwe Cork to set up a meeting.

But then Alex and his wife are executed outside their home. Krueger's eighth O'Connor installment (after Thunder Bay) involves several mysteries as more violence and deaths occur. Cork tries to find answers while keeping his family safe and doing right by both his former law enforcement colleagues and the Ojibwe people.

While this tale of small-town racial tensions and drug trafficking by Native Americans is drawn from the pages of the newspaper, Krueger puts a very human face on these issues.