Lucian Wing is the sheriff of a backwoods county in Vermont, a hardscrabble place far from the picture-postcard gaze. He is also a man with a problem.

Multiple problems, in fact, including a threatening superior; a wandering wife; a hard-drinking father-in-law; a demented mother; a squad of deputies variously overzealous and moronic; a mysterious vigilante band operating in his jurisdiction; and a formidably bloodthirsty local carnivore...

Wing needs to draw on all his patience, knowledge, and (especially) humor to resolve things. Not least, to honour what one ambiguous ally refers to as Old Number Five.