The creek is dry. The raccoons are organized. And Rowan Hale is the only one listening.

After fifteen years as a wildlife consultant, Rowan Hale returns to her hometown of Briar Hollow with a simple plan: settle her late mother's estate, sell the family home, and leave. But the quiet town she remembers has changed. The creek that once flowed behind her house has fallen silent, and the town council is in an uproar over a mysterious "wildlife crisis" involving a highly organized band of raccoons ransacking Main Street.

Rowan knows that animals don't act out without a reason. While the town demands traps and quick fixes, Rowan begins her own investigation. She teams up with an unlikely partner?a three-legged stray dog she names Scout?and uncovers a trail of corruption leading from a sealed culvert on a back road directly to the door of a powerful real estate developer.

Caught between a town that just wants the problem to go away and a corporation that will stop at nothing to keep its secrets buried, Rowan must decide if she's just passing through, or if Briar Hollow is finally worth fighting for.