Maggie Tall Bear Sloan, half Irish, half Yurok, and one-hundred percent gutsy, is a retired criminologist who shapeshifts into the Pukkekwerek, the Yurok nation's monster-killing raven. After she brings down a cannibalistic child murderer possessed by a Manitou, Maggie, and her lover, Jake Lubbock, a former sheriff, move from the mountains in Northern California to a desert town in southern California. Maggie and Jake settle into their new community; with one goal, an enjoyable retirement. She buys a pub, Jake writes a book, they both join the town's law enforcement reserves, spending Sundays with family.

All is well for Maggie and Jake until the local sheriff shows them photos of a dentist, his wife, and teenage son, roasted over separate fires on spits, their flesh cannibalized. The police dub the murderer, "The Aunt Lorrie's Salt Killer," because the murderer's calling card is a container of the salt balanced on the victims' corpses. Maggie suspects The Salt Killer may be The Chenoo, an ice-demon from Passamaquoddy and Micmac lore.

The sheriff calls on Maggie and Jake to lead a task force to investigate, and that's when things get strange. To complicate things, Sally, a ghost, and Maggie's closest friend, materializes to warn Maggie of an impending and unavoidable tragedy: someone close to Maggie will die.