After Sgt. Jim Chee discovers the body of a Navajo man with horribly flayed feet and hands, a number of apparently unrelated events leads him along a path of confusion. Was Chee being duped in a magician's elaborate sleight of hand?
Indian tribal policeman Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee investigate a casino robbery which killed a guard and wounded another. A manhunt takes them into the canyons of the Four Corners, a region bordering Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.