Joe Leaphorn may be long retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, but his detective skills are still sharp, honed by his work as a private detective. His experience will be essential in solving a compelling new case: finding the birth parents of a woman who was raised by a bilagáana family but believes she is Diné. Her suspicion is based on one solid clue, an old photograph with a classic Navajo child's blanket. Leaphorn discovers that his client's adoption was questionable, and her adoptive family is not what they seem. His quest for answers takes him to an old trading post and leads him to a mysterious cache of long-buried family secrets. As that case grows more complicated, Leaphorn receives an unexpected call from a person he met decades earlier. Cecil Bowleg's desperation is clear in his voice, but before he can explain, the call is cut off by an explosion and Cecil disappears. True to his nature, Leaphorn is determined to find the truth even as the situation grows dangerous. When Officer Bernadette Manuelito investigates the explosion, who discovers a body and an unexpected link to Cecil's missing wife. Bernie also is involved in a troubling investigation of her own: an elderly weaver whose prize-winning sheep have been ruthlessly killed by feral dogs.