Former K- 9 officer and private investigator Quinn McKay accepts a temporary job as a handyman and herder to the mysterious guitar maker, Tracy Huddleston-Gardner, until he can reconcile with his girlfriend, who is studying in Canada. Quinn feels the magical, bucolic charms of the Ojai Valley will soothe some of his troubled past. That is, until he learns his girlfriend, Francesca, has disappeared. Equally unnerving to Quinn is the appearance of a man's dismembered arm in the foyer of Tracy's house. Her rival luthiery competitor is missing. Evidence mounts against her. Despite her pleas that she is innocent, he knows that Tracy is keeping secrets, even ones that would clear her of all suspicion, but why? And what dangerous secret is her eleven-year-old daughter hiding? To help speed up the investigation so he can look for Francesca and help Tracy, Quinn is pulled reluctantly into conducting his own private investigation, one that leads him into an animal rights organization in which letter-writing campaigns and protests may be as commonplace as kidnapping and m