In a small town on the Oregon coast, a runaway teen steals a bicycle and a local renegade poaches a rare bull elk, setting off a series of events that lead to murder.

There are a number of "natives" in this fast-paced novel. At its heart is TJ Garvin, a well-known local renegade whose family settled on the Oregon coast generations ago. He's building a wooden trawler from the ground up in the middle of 80 acres of upland old growth Douglas Fir and has an illegal marijuana grow site hidden in the woods. There's his estranged wife, Johanna, who takes out a restraining order against TJ. Her dream is to get a real estate license and leave town for the big city with their three-year-old son, Jason. There's Luke Russell, a 17-year-old runaway who goes native in the coastal woods, raiding cabins to stay alive. There's Morris Barnes, the local sheriff and a relative Rogue County newcomer who dresses like a logger and plots to be elected Rogue County commissioner as a stepping-stone to the state legislature. There's Clive Williamson, three-time mayor of the town of Rogue River. Clive stands in Barnes' way and is the subject of a recall election. Finally, there is Barnes' deputy, Miles Jenkins, who attends rendezvous encampments dressed in home-made buckskins and itches to settle a score with TJ Garvin.

Over one spring and summer the lives of these characters intersect to result in a brutal murder that shocks the coastal town of Rogue River.