In 1857, on a wagon train bound for California, 120 settlers were slaughtered and some of the women and children kidnapped, in what has come to be known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. There was no question about who committed the outrage, and the Mormon hierarchy saw to it that a man was executed for the crime.In this explosive first novel, John Gates introduces Bybee, an attorney with a past more clouded than a mountain thunderstorm, assigned to assist in the defense of a young man accused of murder in the town of Kanab, Utah. It's expected that he'll simply go through the motions, do what he's told, and, perhaps, regain at least some of his reputation as a reward.To mount even a basic defense, however, requires some investigation, and Brig realizes quickly that not only is the accused being set up, but so is he. To save himself and his client, the attorney must ask questions that people have avoided answering for more than a hundred years because facing the answers would be catastrophic.