Indian tribal policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee investigate a casino robbery which killed a guard and wounded another. A manhunt takes them into the canyons of the Four Corners, a region bordering Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
Navajo tribal policeman Jim Chee, barred from following up on a multi-million-dollar drug case, investigates a murder and vandalism incident and finds that perhaps all three cases are part of the same pattern.