A woman is lying dead in the stillness of an airless trailer. Why someone would murder the homeless loner is only one of the questions nagging at the police. Why did the killer use an 85-year-old bullet, fired from the gun used in the brutal murder of two other women? The slayings are as oppressive as the 100 degree heat for Sheriff Joanna Brady in Cochise County, Arizona. She must put marital distractions and an opponent's dirty tricks aside to deal with the case that threatens everyone in her jurisdiction. Now there is a serial killer in their midst. Fear, hatred, and evil at the core of one family's history come to a boil beneath the merciless Arizona sun.