A couple of fun loving environmentalists finds a dead spotted owl crucified on a tree with a sign carrying a message to Alexander Addington as they spent a beautiful day in the great outdoors. Alexander receives an urgent call from the Governor Jim Donnely of Maine telling him that the truce Addington had negotiated between the environmentalist and loggers had just went up in flames in his election year. A rather desparate governor proposes to intervene if tensions gets worse, but Alexander promises to fix the problem he helped to create and calls Peter and the team to reactify the situation. It quickly becomes apparent that the loggers were due to return to work the next day, but this action suggests to Peter and the team that whoever did this wanted to sabotage that very agreement or so it appears.