Mystery and murder in Jesuit mission territory: a story set in the desert and craggy mountains of Sonora, Mexico, in the eighteenth century. An army captain is killed at Ures Mission in such a way as to throw the blame on the missionary, Andreas Michel, S.J. He sends to a neighboring mission for Fr. Ignaz Pfefferkorn who investigates, risking his life in the process. The investigation reveals illegitimate commercegun-runningbetween a Jesuit Vice-Provincial and Dutch traders, a beautiful widow seeking revenge against the army and the Jesuits for her husband’s suspicious death, Apache involvement, and political intrigue. Ignaz solves the crime, but he and his brothers are swept up in the expulsion of all Jesuits from Spain and its dependencies. Ignaz, personifying the best of the Jesuit mission endeavor in New Spain, mourns the destruction of the entire enterprise.