Timber harvesting can be a dangerous occupation, and so can helping a friend in trouble. When reluctant sleuths Sarah Cassidy and Oliver Wendell combine the two, they find the result is downright murder. It all starts when boatbuilder Pearly Gaites persuades Sarah and Oliver to help a logger friend who appears to have been framed for murder. There's more to the logger than meets the eye, however, and the duo quickly find themselves caught up in a tangled thicket of revenge and death where impatient loggers, a greedy landowner, an ambivalent forester, and an over-zealous conservation group are waging a shadowy battle over more than just trees. Then Oliver becomes a victim and Sarah uncovers the truth only to find herself being pursued through the woods by ruthless killers.