Hoback flees to Wyoming to escape the big city violence that cost him his wife and almost turned him into a killer. Life is good in Hardwater until somebody butchers three people like deer, packs their bodies with uranium ore, and sends Hoback a poem, challenging him to stop the killing. The poet reveals an intimate knowledge of Hoback's violent past - and a perverse and terrifying interest in his son. This haunting tale of murder, betrayal, and a father's love takes place in a Wyoming uranium-mining town set in the middle of the wildest, most beautiful country south of Alaska.