A freak rainstorm has flooded Death Valley, leaving ruin in its wake. A park ranger finds a body along a remote trail, buried by debris. When they find the man was murdered, not drowned, the FBI is involved, and Zack Tolliver is assigned the case. He will work with another investigator, Tisha Knolls, of the Park Service Investigative Services Branch. Zack's friend Eagle Feather is hired to search for a man gone missing from the Naval Weapons Center firing range at China Lake. Both investigations deepen into an intricate series of events linking rare minerals, space technology, the local indigenous people, industrial greed, and murder.