Investigating a series of death threats against a federal judge in a rural Alaskan community, Deputy U.S. Marshal Arliss Cutter and his partner, Lola Teariki, find the case complicated by suspicious local disappearances and deaths.

Pulled from their duties to keep track of sequestered jurors in a high-profile trial involving a massive drug conspiracy, Arliss Cutter and deputy Lola Teariki realize that they are dealing with something much bigger, and darker, than a simple drug trial when the prosecuting attorney is murdered.