In 1891, in the aftermath of the Wounded Knee massacre, awful nightmares and bizarre killing sprees shake the uneasy peace between a frontier town of White Pine and the Lakota on the nearby reservation. Pioneer doctor Charles Zimmerman finds himself at the forefront of the investigation and uncovers a crawling horror the likes of which he could not imagine. With the help an orphaned farm girl, a smart-mouth stage robber, a beaten-down Lakota warrior, a beautiful medicine woman, and Charles's estranged father--the aging town marshal--Charles must save not only the town of White Pine but also the starving Lakota from an ancient, hungry evil.