A man from one of private investigator Dan Ballantine’s previous cases tells twenty-something Henrietta ‘Ren’ Wohlman how to contact him. Dan refuses to talk with her until she offers him a drink of Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23 bourbon.

Ren lets Dan read a letter she received from a former roommate who fell in love with a military patient she treated in Walter Reed Hospital. They eloped and a few months later she joined Andrew in his home in Colorado City, Arizona. Only then did Kathy learn Andrew, a Fundamentalist Mormon, already had two wives and several children.

Dan suggests Ren find a cult retrieval specialist. However, he agrees to help when Ren offers him $100,000 in cash.

Kathy’s letter describes a prison-like existence with one exception. She is allowed to go horseback riding on Saturdays so long as she leads a group of children.

The letter also describes Ruth, a fifteen-year-old rape victim that has been promised to a church leader as his sixth wife on her birthday two weeks away.

Kathy and Ruth hate their existences and plan to commit suicide together before the wedding.

Dan and Ren work out a rescue plan and take Kathy and Ruth from the riding group.

But the church leaders are soon tracking them as Dan leads Ren, Kathy, and Ruth to his winter boondock place on Lake Mohave.

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