What is the connection between a dead sailor in Washington State and the Lake County, Oregon, murder of an identified John Doe? The more information that turns up, the worse things seem. Is the Navy trying to hide something? Does a drug-running ring in Christmas Valley have connections to the Middle East? What's up with Crazy Charlie? And is the bottle-and-cans man who drifted into town really who he seems to be? When the dust settles, Sheriff Bud Blair is left with a new homicide to solve, a suspicion that a mole is hiding in the NCIS, and an unpaid debt to a man who doesn't officially exist—the mysterious Stone Fly.