When Tate Barkley meet up with a man who calls himself "Gator" he doesn't know he's the boss of a gang of "plumers" – men who kill thousands of birds in the everglades so their pues can adorn fashionable ladies' hats. In fact, he doesn't even know what a "plumer" is.

But he learns quick enough, and more about the rough and dangerous bunch than he ever wanted to know. When he joins up with a rich Yankee detective who's hunting a friend that's gone missing in the vast and watery wilderness you can be sure there's going to be trouble in the Everglades.