Joseph "Golden Coyote" Ramirez has wandered most of his life in search of the daughter he abandoned when she was a baby. In 1910, a Great Schism at the Hopi pueblo of San Ildefonso resulted in the Winter People, including Joseph's ancestors, succumbing to the swine flu and starvation. Now, two generations later, Joseph and his daughter are the last survivors.
Strange mutilations of cattle occur in the Valle Grande, a nearby volcano caldera where Los Alamos Laboratory is building a geothermal plant. Hopi are suspected as they oppose building on their sacred land. When the owner of the Valle is murdered in the same way as the cattle, Joseph must solve the crime to clear the young Hopi woman he believes to be his lost daughter. Helped by Maria, the pueblo police chief who feels remorse over the role her family played in the demise of the Winter People, Joseph must survive attempts on his life and match wits with scientists, a cult that has turned UFOs into a religion, Hopi warriors, and Hispanic ranchers.