Officer Bernadette Manuelito finds the dead man slumped over in the cab of a pickup, with a rich ex-con's phone number in his pocket . . . and a tobacco tin filled with placer gold. She figures he's just another drunk--an assumption that gets her in trouble for mishandling a crime scene and brings down the wrath of the FBI on her supervisor, Sergeant Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police. For Chee's mentor, former Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, the death eerily echoes a long dormant cold case. Years earlier, Leaphorn followed the trail of a beautiful, young, and missing wife to a dead end, and the failure to close that investigation has haunted him ever since. This new case could lead to the truth, and the legendary lawman comes out of retirement, determined to solve it.