Hope Granderson, a reporter from Denver, arrives at the office of the newly elected County Sheriff for an interview. She asks Eddie Crandall to recall a particularly troubling case in his past when he was still a Lieutenant. But, instead of telling a simple story, the Sheriff takes the reporter on a field trip to the Salt Creek community where she can see where it all took place.
The Salt Creek community is an actual location that few people within the United States have ever seen or even heard about before. But within the small hovel in central Wyoming, it exudes the very essence of the term community. It is unique in the sense that people look after their own whenever trouble comes. But even in the nicest of places, bad things can happen without anyone realizing what is happening.
The story centers around a teenaged couple that fails to show up at their prom. The Salt Creek community immediately responds by rallying together in support while also demanding answers from the Sheriff's office, which refuses to help. Further complicating the case, new evidence suggests that other teenaged girls mysteriously disappeared from small towns spread out across northeastern Wyoming. Were the incidents connected? Eddie, along with the area's newly assigned deputy, Cory Jackson, begins an investigation to find the truth.