Steve Cline has managed the hunter/jumper show barns at Foxdale Farm for the better part of three years. But he has a deal with himself: When he no longer feels challenged, when the routine becomes stagnant, he will look for another job...and he passed that point months ago. So when Corey Claremont, one of Foxdale's boarders, asks Steve for help because her brother has gone missing, Steve embraces the puzzle with enthusiasm. Two weeks earlier, for no apparent reason, Bruce Claremont quit his job working the night shift on a thoroughbred breeding farm in Warrenton, Virginia, and vanished. To find out what happened, Steve slips unobtrusively into Bruce's world. The more Steve learns, the more he suspects that Corey may never see her brother again. Secrets, jealousies, and obsessions are the norm in this pastoral setting, and the present seems to be repeating its fiery past.