When a noted anthropologist arrives at an ancient Anasazi Indian ruin to dig for clay pots, she's angry to find that the pre-Navajo burial site has been despoiled - then she is terrified at what looms out of the darkness. Weeks later, Lt. Joe Leaphorn, investigating a report to the Navajo Tribal Police that the anthropologist has been stealing precious artifacts, discovers that she's also been reported missing. The case turns sinister when Officer Jim Chee, on a routine search for missing excavation equipment, finds more than he expected near a similar dig. Leaphorn and Chee join forces to unearth the past and solve a bizarre and mystifying series of murders that seem to have only one thing in common - the beautiful and valuable Anasazi pots.