Reed Haddok was unconscious. Strong hands lifted him and took him to safety. Haddock owed his life to the owner of those hands. If a man was owed a thank-you by Haddok, count on him to pay his debt. He soon gets his chance when he finds that the man who saved his life, Tall Tree, is now the wounded captive of an Apache war party.

A friendly town is caught by surprise when a relatively unknown woman is murdered in northwest Alabama. Nothing adds up as detective Lane Cole jumps on the case with bulldog tenacity only to find himself at repeated dead ends.