As fall descends and winter approaches the small northern New Mexico town of Ojo Verde, people tend to bookshops, wait tables, and take care of livestock, while Tulona Puebloans prepare for the Still Time of their calendar. Beneath quiet rhythms, however, crimes occur. The Franklin Deerfield Museum has been robbed of a prehistoric medicine bundle associated with the extinct Hanging Shell Pueblo. A Navajo ceremonial mask is also missing. Richard Tafoya, a Tulona tribal policeman, and Janet Rael, a U.S. Forest Service biology specialist, seek to apprehend three thieves associated with the museum heist. Unbeknown to them, the thieves seek to use the medicine bundle to revitalize the Hanging Shell kiva culture, challenging the harmony of Tulona Pueblo. A murder in the high country of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Angel Fire seems, at first, to be unrelated to the museum theft. Tafoya and Rael identify one museum thief and eventually confront the murderer at the pueblo, but justice does not play out until mystical, but explainable, circumstances bring truth to light. Includes Readers Guide