Tularosa - the place of reddish willows in Spanish - holds the key to Kevin Kerney's past and his future. Ex-chief of detectives in the Santa Fe Police Department, retired early by a shot-up leg, Kerney is drawn back into action when Navajo Indian Terry Yazzi, his ex-partner and the man responsible for his injuries, asks him to locate his son, reported missing from the high-security White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. To find Sammy Yazzi, Kerney must track clues that lead deep into the histories of the region - Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo - and, surprisingly, into his own family's ranching past. And he must deal with the complicated feelings triggered by the army's investigator, Captain Sara Brannon, a fiery young officer as formidable as she is attractive.