Emily Bushyhead's father is chief of police in the small town of Buckskin, Oklahoma, but that doesn't prepare her for the horror of finding a body in the cave she's used as shelter from a violent thunder storm. Mitch Bushyhead discovers that the dead man is Arnett Walsh, one of the Oklahoma Wildlife Department officers assigned to investigating the recent random killing of protected bald eagles.The police suspect a connection to Vian Brasfield, the local high school principal who has been sponsoring eagle dances performed by colorfully masked performers on his property outside of town. Brasfield, who is obsessed with Cherokee lore and history, knows all the dancers, particularly ones known to hunt with bows and arrows. But Mitch can't talk to Brasfield; he's disappeared. In addition, the police must contend with Dane Kennedy, who promotes anti-government "patriotic" activities, from a compound near Brasfield's land. His known anti-Cherokee sentiments don't make him a murderer, but he knows more than he's saying. In the end, it isn't political passion that brings chaos to this small Oklahoma city; the crimes of the heart revisit the children of a murdered woman.