A member of "The Keepers of Order," an armed militia determined to hunt down the culprits who have been poaching bighorn sheep, is shot while patrolling one of the remotest parts of Utah's rugged backcountry. In pursuit of the shooter, Deputy Sheriff Manny Rivera stumbles upon another crime linked to the activities of a Ute medicine man who roamed those same lands in the early 1700s. With the help of a smart, young anthropologist, Rivera plunges into the past to unravel a sequence of bizarre events underlying a shocking murder. In the end, he's once again forced to choose between enforcing the letter of the law and serving the cause of justice.