In Alaska, people disappear every day. In Aleut detective Kate Shugak's Park, they've been disappearing a lot lately. Not only are Park rats disappearing at an alarming rate, but so is life in the Park as Kate knows it. Alaska state trooper Jim Chopin's workload has increased to where he doesn't make it home three nights out of four, the controversial mine has seduced Johnny and his classmates with summer jobs and divided the Ninilta Native Association, and a hostile environmental activist organization has embraced the Suulutaq Mine as their reason for being. It's almost a relief when Kate finds a body. This she can handle. Unitl the identity of the body vanishes, too.