On a quiet afternoon in Houston, 4-year-old Joey Warner plays in a park sandbox when a stranger approaches looking for his runaway dog. While Joey's mom, Crystal, talks on her cell phone, the stranger convinces the child to help him search. By the time Crystal turns around, her son has disappeared. Yet her reaction is odd, not what one would expect from a distraught mother. Is Crystal Warner somehow involved in her son's abduction?

Meanwhile, on a cattle ranch outside Houston, Texas Ranger and profiler Sarah Armstrong assesses a symbol left on the hide of a slaughtered longhorn, a figure that dates back to a forgotten era of sugarcane plantations and slavery. Soon, other prize-winning bulls are found butchered on the outskirts of the city, each bearing a new but similar symbol. Before long, the two investigations converge at the same time a catastrophic hurricane threatens. One of Sarah's close friends is murdered, and the clock ticks as the storm moves in. If Sarah doesn't act quickly, the child will die.

Kathryn Casey delivers a fast-paced, exciting third case for Sarah Armstrong, one of the pluckiest and most complex female investigators to come along in a long time.