Jimmy DeAnza, Homicide Lieutenant for the Anchorage Police Department, is baffled by a bizarre murder scene at an Anchorage Coffee Bar where the owner is found dead in his back office, tied up with some of his blood drained and his body staged in a mystical pattern.

Faye Gambell, the female employee, who discovers the gruesome display of her employer, has challenged DeAnza by claiming she can solve the case before he can. But her own background is as mysterious as the murder itself.

For a two-week period in the middle of a cold Anchorage, Alaska winter, the two race to sift through the barest of clues only to be compounded by a second murder that is as baffling as the first. Forced to work together, they finally discover a suspect and hatch a plan to bring the psychotic criminal to justice.