Shadow Dancer is a horse, an all-black, all-Arabian thoroughbred. Her owner, Cody Lang, discovers a murder has taken place on his ranch, and the chief suspect is next-door neighbor, Donna Louise Stattler, who had the black hair ribbon that Cody found next to the body. Donna Louise wants Shadow Dancer and will do almost anything to get her. An FBI agent, Carol Flynn, comes to the small town of Clark, Montana, to investigate the murder and is amazed to hear the name Stattler. The Stattler brothers are believed to be the main source of methamphetamine in Montana. Agent Flynn goes after the Stattlers, and Shadow Dancer, whose mind we enter, watches as it all comes to an explosive climax on the Fourth of July.