Navajo Tribal Policeman Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee attempt to unravel a web of tribal politics and murder.

During a kachina ceremony at the Tano Pueblo, the antics of a dancing koshare, the sacred clown of the Pueblo people, fill the air with tension. Moments later, the clown is found bludgeoned to death in the same manner a reservation schoolteacher was killed only days before. Officer Jim Chee and Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn believe that answers lie in the sacred clown's final cryptic message to the Tano people. But to decipher it, the two Navajo policemen may have to delve into closely guarded tribal secrets―on a sinister trail of blood that links a runaway, a holy artifact, corrupt Indian traders, and a pair of dead bodies.

During a kachina ceremony at the Tano Pueblo, the antics of a dancing koshare, the sacred clown of the Pueblo people, fill the air with tension. Moments later, the clown is found bludgeoned to death in the same manner a reservation schoolteacher was killed only days before. Officer Jim Chee and Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn believe that answers lie in the sacred clown's final cryptic message to the Tano people. But to decipher it, the two Navajo policemen may have to delve into closely guarded tribal secrets-on a sinister trail of blood that links a runaway, a holy artifact, corrupt Indian traders, and a pair of dead bodies.