Former CIA operative Phoenix Smith and Acting Sheriff Annalynn Keyser find a missing farmer dead with a rifle at his side and a broken antler in his back. The women suspect a human framed a deer. Phoenix hunts for the deadly deer as an excuse to investigate the widow, a hostile neighbor, an ecoterrorist, and other suspects. Rule-bound Annalynn leads the official investigation, stretching the law and her ethics to convert Phoenix's illegally obtained leads into court-admissible evidence.