One woman is dead. Another is hanging onto life by a thread. To track down the monster who brutalized these victims, the Mountpelier police call upon their best detective team, Cimarron and Melbourne. In the course of their investigation, however, complications arise. Rafe Melbourne's own life is put into jeopardy, and a man from Dawn Cimarron's past enters her life once again. As the case unfolds, the investigators discover that a third woman's life is also at risk, along with the lives of two young children. To save them, the police officers must trek across the length and breadth of the state of Colorado, on the trail of one of the most elusive killers they have ever encountered.