When Daisy Sandoval, a young mother who teaches school on a Native American reservation in Arizona, is found near death in a ravine, tribal members suspect foul play. They focus on Harlan Sandoval, Daisy's ex-husband, a defrocked Pente- costal preacher who now heads a family-run criminal gang on the reservation.

Kate Thorsen, a freelance writer, flies to Arizona when she learns that Daisy, her only niece, is barely clinging to life. After Daisy dies, Kate moves to the reservation and attempts to solve the riddle of her niece's death. Then she discovers that Daisy's two children are missing. In a place where cultures clash and people distrust outsiders, few are willing to talk. But Kate eventually finds her life radically changed by a Mohave shaman, who dares her to stand up to Harlan and his thugs.