As deputy sheriff of Mineral County, Colorado, Bill Tatum gets to ride a horse and wear a cool hat, but he never expected to find a dead woman in the hills, with a bullet hole in her temple. A reporter from the Rocky Mountain News, she had a journal that revealed secret affairs, political corruption, and a pending environmental disaster. As Tatum muddles through the deception and lies, the sniper stays one step ahead of him, exhibiting meticulous planning and a penchant for public assassinations. When his suspects fill up the county morgue instead of the jail, Tatum realizes he must fall back on his training as an Army sniper to regain superior position and stop the terror from the ridge above.