The murder of a man seen fighting in a house during a Fourth of July street parade plunges Sarah Burke's whole household --her fragile mother Aggie, shrewd and ever-helpful live-in boyfriend Will and even her hard-charging niece, Denny --into her latest case.

Horace Hopper is ashamed of his half-Paiute, half-Irish heritage. He's spent most of his life on a Nevada sheep ranch after the Reeses took him in. They've treated him like a son, intending to leave the ranch in his hands. Determined to prove his worth as a championship boxer, Horaces changes the way he eats, trains, and thinks. Reinventing himself as Hector Hildago, a scrappy Mexican boxer, he heads to Tucson and begins training and entering fights....

Every life has a turning point where one choice changes everything. Once that line is crossed, there's no going back. J.D. Jessup finds his line in the desert near Tucson. While working for an organic farmer, J.D. finds an illegal immigrant named Maria near death by the border. J.D. hides Maria; and in doing so, he sets off a chain of deadly events beyond his imagination.