After the murder of his fiancée, Mack Thomas leaves Minnesota and goes to his uncle's ranch in Texas. While there, he learns that the death of his wife two years ago wasn't an accident but murder. After getting a description of the murderer and knowing that it had something to do with a resort complex being built in a wildlife refuge in Minnesota, Mack returns to his home there. Once home, he learns that two boys have recently been murdered the same way his fiancée was. While discussing the murders with his friend, Dale Magee, the Clayborne County Sheriff, at one of the murder sites near a bridge being built, Dale offers Mack a job as a deputy sheriff and Mack accepts. Then, while they are at the bridge, Mack has a serious disagreement with the construction foreman. It was an incident the foreman couldn't let go of. On his first day on the job, Mack is ambushed and shot, but four days later, he's back on the job, eager to find the killer of the boys, and almost as eager to find the killer of his wife. He also carries the hope that his wife's killer will lead him to his fiancée's ex-husband, someone Mack knows was involved in¿both of the murders of his wife and, two years later, of his fiancée.