For Clint Ryan, known as El Lazo, the San Joaquin Valley is a land of promise and hope, a rancher's paradise. The grass lies belly-deep, the water is plentiful, and the nearby Yocuts Indians are both peaceful and friendly. But his isolated ranch with its small but loyal crew seems like easy pickings to the vicious Stokes boys and their hardcase outfit of hunters and skinners. And stalking Clint's land is an even greater threat—a massive and elusive grizzly called Twotoes, revered by the Indians as a god...and feared by anyone who crosses its path as a man-killer.