"When a University of Wyoming professor goes missing, authorities are stumped, until Joe Pickett finds the professor's vehicle parked on a remote mountainside, then the professor's frozen and mutilated body. When he attempts to learn more, his investigation is obstructed by federal agents, extremists, and Governor Colter Allen. Nate Romanowski is rebuilding his falconry company. He's approached by a shadowy group of local militant activists that is demanding that Wyoming secede from the union. As a storm of peril gathers around them, Joe and Nate confront it in different ways--and maybe, for the first time, on opposite sides"--