Heartsick that the towering trees that once sheltered him are being cut, Rinn van Ness commits a minor felony on a remote Alaska island. A woman he once loved, Kit Olinsky, is arrested for his crime—and the murder of a Tlingit elder broken by the loss of the Native way of life. Out on bail, Kit fights a scorched-earth battle in the state legislature to save the Alaska she loves. It's not a battle she can win. But she will fight to the end even if she has to betray her secret lover, a Tlingit fighting desperately for what was promised to his people a generation ago. Rinn slips out of the forest to protect Kit, never suspecting that he has more at stake than a lonely prison cell.