Struggling to put a wounded deer out of its misery, intrepid rancher Shirley McClintock stumbles over a human skeleton half-buried in autumn leaves. Then she discovers a second murder, accomplished with the same arrow that had pierced the body of the deer. The crimes are apparently unrelated, but McClintock catches the same rotten stench in both. Only proof is lacking, but that, when she finds it, cannot be used. Not without putting the person nearest her heart into mortal danger.