Sharon McCone, investigator for San Francisco's All-Souls Legal Co-op, is trying to find out what's going on around the near-ghost town of Promiseville, once a center of gold mining in California's high desert. A renewed attempt at large-scale mining on land bought by the Japanese-based Transpacific Corporation has come to a complete halt. McCone's ex- colleague, Anne-Marie, heads a conservation group, along with attractive Hy Ripinsky and wimpy Ned Sanderman, that's worried about the real intentions of Transpacific. Then there are the seeming disappearance of old-timer Earl Hopwood, who'd sold his land to the corporation, and the questions of Earl's connection to Mick Erickson, another seller--a connection that surfaces after Erickson's found shot to death. Lots of questions--and none better than McCone at ferreting out answers, despite troubles with lover George, her suddenly liberated mother, and much uneasy self- analysis.