It seems to Marley Dearcorn the harder she runs away from her troubled past the quicker it catches up. Losing her job with the Montana Fish and Wildlife office forced her to reinvent her life after returning home to tiny Killdeer, and she has managed to thrive. But the unexpected arrival of her ex-husband, and his shocking news, throws her quiet existence into a tailspin. A recently uncovered telephone message casts doubt over the theory that a poacher her old office was investigating slipped out of town before he could be arrested, and now it looks like he may have disappeared under sinister circumstances. The last place the poacher was seen alive isn't a place Marley wants to be. The rugged mountain range, known for its hearty bear population and a ranch known for hiring desperate cowboys, is where she has to go in order to uncover the truth. What starts out as a fact-finding mission turns into a fight for survival when Marley discovers that she isn't the only one hunting for the truth, and if she isn't careful, the poacher might not be the last person to vanish in the Montana wilderness.