Alex Gates, "Gater", is a former Buffalo NY police officer and forensic investigator who has retired because he has been defeated by the stress and violence in his job. He became estranged from his wife and teenage daughter for a job as a security guard at an upper New York estate.

It is a winter weekend and his daughter is visiting. The owners of the estate are living in their other home in the Caribbean. They keep two horses in the estate's barn along with a donkey and a recent boarder, an extremelyvaluable retired race horse which is to be sold by a business group for breeding.

In the middle of the night, Gater and his daughter are suddenly wakened by a loud explosion and see the horse barn in flames. The only animal to escape the blaze is the little donkey.

A mysterious groom who lived in the barn and looked after the animals, is also missing.

Together, Gater and his daughter set out fo find out who killed the three horses and why.

Their investigation takes them across the Canadian border where they use DNA technlology to solve the mystery and lay the foundation for other adventures as a father/daughter forensic team.