When Chet the dog and his partner, PI Bernie Little, arrive to a meeting with hydrologist Wendell Nero, they are in for a shocking sight—Wendell has come to a violent and mysterious end. Working for nothing more than an eight-pack of Slim Jims, Chet and Bernie are on the case—their tenth, after Heart of Barkness—trying to prove that the police have arrested the wrong man. The duo looks into Wendell's work, a search that leads to a struggling winemaker who has received an offer he can't refuse. Meanwhile, Chet is smelling water where there is no water, and soon Chet and Bernie are in danger like never before.

"I have been a Chet and Bernie fan from the start, and this is the best one yet."—Stephen King