In an Alaskan bar, Creighton Roane watches a TV news story about multiple, gruesome murders that have occurred in a mountainous region of Tennessee. He is stunned when he recognizes the murder scene as the Findhorn River and the rugged Arn plateau, his childhood home. Memories stirred by the newscast develop into recurring nightmares as Creighton becomes aware of his own needs to see the mountains of his childhood and of reconciliation with his father.

But the Findhorn valley hides whiskey-making murderous clans and revenge killings that span generations. An ancient stone fort sitting on the Arn plateau houses its own mystery of the massacre of the moon-eyed people and of the mentally unstable killer who gives his victims an amulet for their trip to the hereafter. Wrapped around all this is the gut-churning rapids of the Findhorn and the effect it has on those challenging its treacherous waters.