The Chinese community usually handled its own problems without outside help, relying on the powerful tongs to dispense protection and punishment. But when hundreds of Chinese workers began disappearing without a trace -- a few at a time, or a whole work gang -- Kim Lee contacted the U.S. Marshal. Deputy Reese Corbett arrives from Sacramento to look into the situation. Given the climate following the Chinatown riots, it was not unlikely that some vigilante group was murdering the Chinese. What other explanation could there be? Reese enlists a half-Chinese interpreter named Alley Cat(after first buying, losing and then rescuing her) and a rambunctious mountain man to find out what was going on. Increasingly, all trails led to the isolated hills of Snake Canyon...and a deadly secret that could get him and his two friends killed!