Zack Tolliver, FBI, has a strange, recurring dream. In it, he is inexorably drawn toward a forbidding darkness. When the dream begins to interfere with his work, his wife Libby insists he see a psychologist. He turns to friend and mentor Eagle Feather. The Navajo refers him to a friend who is both a psychologist and a Navajo Listener. The treatment seems to be working, but ends with a tragedy. In the midst of it, Zack receives a call for assistance from a fellow FBI agent who is investigating the mysterious deaths of an entire family while seated at the supper table. The family are Tachi Yokut. The cause of death is unknown. Suspects abound. Zack must fly to California, leaving one situation for another. But has he truly left the first behind?