Third generation Utah residents Rolly and Abigail Rogers come from a long line of dedicated pot hunters who scour the desert southwest in search of valuable antiquities. When the couple fails to return from a weekend "skeleton picnic" along the desolate Arizona Strip, local Sheriff Charley Sutter turns to Bureau of Land Management Law Enforcement Ranger J.D. Books for help.

Searching for clues, Books discovers the couple's house has been burglarized and a valuable collection of ancient Anasazi and Fremont Indian antiquities stolen. Then the Rogers' truck and trailer are found at an abandoned campsite near a recently excavated Anasazi ruin. Footprints and other evidence suggest the couple may have been overpowered by a group of assailants.

Books and Sutter's attractive young deputy Beth Tanner investigate. Could the disappearance of the Rogers be the responsibility of a shadowy group of armed Indian police? Soon Books' own survival skills are tested. The hunter becomes the hunted, and only one person gets to go home alive.