When ex-trooper, Lee Carter, is arrested for the brutal murder of Archaeology Professor Alec Colton, Detective Sergeant Locklear knows the odds are stacked against proving that his friend is innocent. He finds himself suspended from duty and knows his only hope of saving Lee is to follow the leads which take him to the place of his birth, the Badlands of South Dakota.

With his shrewd trooper, Jo Mendoza, by his side, he finds himself caught between a mysterious multinational organisation responsible for the theft of priceless indigenous artefacts and an equally dangerous secret society trying to stop them.

When the trail brings Locklear into conflict with old friends and even older enemies, Mendoza and he uncover a conspiracy involving the police, university academics, international diplomats, the US army and the inhabitants of an impoverished Native American reservation.

It also brings Locklear face to face with both sides of a family he did not know he had. With family members on opposite sides of a bloody conflict in which there are no rules, the line between right and wrong becomes blurred for Locklear. He must choose. But which side is right, and can he choose in time to save his friend?