January 1866. Ten months since the war ended. Major James V. Dougherty and Medical Steward Sean McBrien, now mustered out, are settled in Pennrose Valley in Pennsylvania's Carbon County, heart of the hard coal mining region. Dougherty, married to Genevieve Collingwood, is contract physician for the mine and McBrien the town pharmacist.
Even civilian life has its dangers. The miners, foiled in their efforts to form a labor union, soon seek solutions elsewhere. There are rumors of secret societies and before long opposition between labor and management erupts into violence.
One freezing morning Dougherty is summoned to a mine cave-in, where he discovers the body of a man newly arrived in town. His death is no accident. His legacy involves Dougherty, his wife and McBrien, in a search for a cold-bloodied killer who has been active for some time.
With no way to identify the killer, can they stop him before he kills again? The key to their success is staring them in the face almost from the first, but will it prove as elusive as the killer himself has always done before this?
