It is winter in Botswana's Kalahari Desert. A five-year ban on wildlife hunting has just ended. Eight elephants lie dead in the sand, their tusks torn from their skulls. Mark Springer and his collaborator, Baruti Moseki, witness the slaughter. Within hours Moseki is himself killed by the hunters. So begins Springer's crusade to track down Moseki's killers, a crusade that requires him to unravel a tangled web of claims and deceits across two continents. Uncovering the murky connection between a senator, a soldier, a conservation NGO, and a proposal to establish an international anti-poaching task force, compels Springer to confront the human costs of conservation in a land where hunting is still a way of life for many San people.