It's just another day on the job for state trooper Louisa Linebach. Hundreds of young men go missing from Alaska's Kenai Peninsula every year, so when Lee Stanton and Branden Halifax both disappear within days of each other, Louisa doesn't think much of it. One appears to be a simple suicide, but the other defies all explanation, with the victim's footprints literally vanishing along an abandoned mountain runway.

As Louisa and her partner investigate, they encounter alien conspiracy theories, a town where all the inhabitants live in one building, and signs of a drug trade that's inextricably mingled with the tourist industry around Seward. Their investigation is further complicated by a police chief who's unwilling to let his friend be investigated and Louisa's feelings for Anna Fenway, the local medical examiner.

When a body is identified and buried, Louisa thinks the case is coming to a close. She's wrong.