Amidst the annual scarecrow display at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum,Bob White finds the dead body of Sonny Delite, a birding colleaguewell-known in the state for his conservation advocacy. Dismissedby the police as a suspect in the case, Bob turns his attention to unmaskingthe former celebrity wrestler who has joined the Savage High Schoolfaculty, but quickly regroups when the murder investigation comes hometo roost at the high school. Determined to discover the identity of Sonny'skiller, Bob's chase takes him to the proposed site of a wind farm, into thecrosshairs of a World War II ordnance expert who shoots vegetablesfrom his bazooka, to Alberta Marsh and its trove of rare birds, and intothe girls' locker room at Savage High School to round up some egg-layingstudents.