Pets in the mountain community of Mason County, Virginia, are vanishing mysteriously and “Missing Dog” posters cover the waiting room walls at Dr. Rachel Goddard’s veterinary clinic. A pack of feral canines roams at night, attacking livestock. Now a prominent physician, Gordon Hall, lies dead in his yard, his throat torn open. Sheriff’s Department investigator Tom Bridger, the man Rachel loves, believes the killing was premeditated murder, with a trained attack dog as the weapon.
Tom also suspects these seemingly coincidental events are connected to the resurgence of an old plague: illegal dogfighting. But Dr. Hall’s son insists the feral dogs killed his father, and he organizes men to find and shoot the animals. Rachel makes enemies by trying to rescue the dogs and move them to a sanctuary.
Does one of Hall’s five children hold the key to his murder? Why is the youngest Hall daughter so frightened that she begs Rachel, a stranger, for help?
Tom and Rachel must face two killers, one human and one canine, and uncover a more complex web of lies and brutality than they ever imagined.