On a freezing morning in the Maine woods, deputy sheriff Perci Piper (real name Persis Piperopoulos)sees the body of college president Sam Spatz tied to a tree with arms outstretched as though crucified. Although police chief Agatha Pickford knows that Perci, an inexperienced deputy sheriff from Florida in Maine on a training program, already faces a wall of hatred, she doesn't realize that assigning her to the investigation will throw her into a pit of corruption, perversion, and deceit that will threaten her life.