When a drug bust reveals exotic animals at a marijuana grow site, zookeeper Iris Oakley and a colleague ride to the rescue in the zoo's van. But instead of pets they find smuggled parrots and tortoises destined for sale to unscrupulous or unsuspecting collectors. Iris also discovers a woman who escaped the bust—dead.The murder and the drug ops are the cops' problem, but Iris is determined to break the criminal pipeline that snatches rare animals from the wild and leaves them neglected in old barns. The zoo's facilities are full, and Iris ends up with two macaws shrieking in her basement. Next, brothers from the busted family, both murder suspects, invade her home, demanding information they think their father passed on as he, too, died at the scene.Iris flees with her child, but soon realizes she must be on the offensive. People she counts on are not who they claim to be. Sorting through baffling clues and tripping over secrets old and new, Iris soon learns that everyone has an agenda.