In the depths of a Rocky Mountain winter, a lovely young actress is murdered in her father's home. Frank Cooper, a rancher who loved her, and Dimitri Kells, her former teacher, team up to find out who did it and why. Was it because of the theft of her father's Japanese swords, one of which is the notorious Fijiwara Tachi, an evil, "bloodthirsty" sword, or a question of who will inherit? Real estate money gone sour, or the sick sexual practices of a hypnotic psychologist? Kells goes to Japan to try to trace the swords, while Cooper stirs up the conflicted society of a small mountain community, where cowboys confront commuters, psychology vies with herbology, and real estate dominates the economy. To end a chilling game of cat and mouse, Cooper must kill for the first time, and none of the survivors' lives will ever be the same.
