The last person Marley Dearcorn ever expected would have an enemy was the gentle-natured Crow Indian teenager from Killdeer high school named Little Joe. But on a cold December morning, she gets a frantic phone call telling her that someone has left his body lying on the front deck of her old house. Little Joe didn't die accidentally. The hunting arrow buried deep in his chest tells her that the boy's death was deliberate, and vicious. She's baffled why someone would leave the boy's body on her family property, but if the past has taught her anything, it's that snooping into a homicide is a good way to get yourself in serious trouble. She vows to stay out of the mystery and let the local sheriff deal with it. A string of unlikely coincidences leads her to believe that Little Joe's killer may have fled town to take refuge in the wilderness area high in the mountains above Killdeer. But when the local sheriff informs Marley that her good friend Dean Tisdale, who just happens to be a master marksman with a bow, is under suspicion for the killing, she wavers in her promise not to get involved. After four rowdy cowboys from the Lazy Ox-Yoke ranch take it upon themselves to go after her friend Dean and hunt him down, Marley starts her own determined investigation into Little Joe's murder. She is convinced she knows who to trust, but will her determination to uncover the truth clear an innocent man's name, or put her into the hands of a ruthless killer?