The Pacific Northwest, November. Isolated by racist fellow officers and his own anger, Detective Archie Stevens is ready to quit police work for good. Bored and angry, he takes on a minor cold case that other cops in the department scorn. Although he is certain that the task will confirm his suspicions that he has chosen the wrong career, Archie doggedly pursues various lines of investigation. When he discovers the mutilated corpse of a scuba diver and abalone poacher, everything changes, and he is soon in danger himself. To solve the case, Archie must move deeper and deeper into a dark world of ritual murder and corruption that haunts and terrorizes a small west coast town.