Summer doldrums and a severe heat wave combine to cause a slump in business for the Laurel County Sheriff, leaving Roy Martin free to investigate the complaint of a terrible odor along the remote and once idyllic Raccoon Creek.

What Roy finds there is a sinister conspiracy to force Ernestine Walden, a charming elderly woman, to leave her lifelong home so that they can develop the land along the stream for a handsome profit.

The plotters have already shown a ruthless determination to get what they want, including at least one cold-blooded murder.