A sniper is shooting people, seemingly at random, around Minnesota. Alicia Kolovich and Bill Haley are partnered again as they follow the clues to track down the killer or killers. Their investigation leads them to a person who was declared dead in Arkansas years earlier, and to a militia group operating in the woods of northern Minnesota. The surprising conclusion leads them back to the Twin Cities. Along the way Kolovich and Haley continue their evolving friendship which started earlier when they worked together on the Eighth Grave case.