The year is 1934. While investigating the murder of a gypsy circus "freak" in Northwest Iowa, Sheriff Billy Rhett Kershaw and his deputy, Dwight Spooner, juggle slippery and tangled biases of their prejudiced constituents.

But when bizarre forces trip up their investigation almost immediately, jeopardizing more lives in the process, they must step up their game.

Holmes and Watson are imperfectly reincarnated as Billy and Dwight in the Midwestern Dust Bowl during America's Great Depression. Neither are above considering clues beyond scientific comprehension.

Nor are they beyond leveraging the insights of an intuitive but reluctant amateur sleuth—Sophie Hardt—who comes to their aid.