Trouble crops up in Native American Elsie "Beanie" MacBean's neck of the woods during Lake Tahoe's worst drought of the century. Beanie already has her hands full, dog sitting Calamity, her daughter Nona's rescued basset hound, and is feeling overwhelmed, dealing with her crazy new boarder's behavioral issues and chronic ear infections, while juggling writing deadlines and caring for her own dog, Cruiser. Then things turn deadly. While on a woodland hike with Cruiser and Calamity, Beanie lets the dogs off their leashes. As the two canines rush off, she questions the wisdom of letting them run free. But when the dogs start baying, she knows they've found trouble. Sure enough, the animals have sniffed out a lumberjack's corpse, hugging a tree, with an arrow piercing his neck. Did the killer object to the lumberjack clear-cutting the old-growth forest, or was his motive more personal? As the bodies pile up and the suspects mount, Beanie realizes that her serene forest home is no longer as safe and peaceful as before. Now danger lurks in the forest-man, beast, and nature-and they all seem determined to kill her...