In the wake of Fourth of July fireworks, Hyalite County Sheriff Martha Ettinger and her deputy investigate a horrific scene at the Palisades cliffs, where a herd of bison have fallen to their deaths. Victims of blind panic caused by the pyrotechnics, or a ritualistic hunting practice dating back thousands of years? The person who would know is beyond asking, an American Indian man found dead among the bison, his leg pierced by an arrow. Farther up the valley, Sean Stranahan, erstwhile fly fisherman and private detective, has been hired by a beautiful Chippewa Cree woman to find her old flame. The cases seem unrelated until Stranahan's search leads him to the brink of the buffalo jump.