Humane frontier trapper Gilda Lachs knows the worth of a life that's small, scrappy, and stubborn. When The Ranch's hands steal a baby bear to sell to Otis Waltoon's traveling circus, her quiet work of relocating raccoons turns into a rescue mission. Tired of watching animals starved, burned, and broken until they obey out of fear, Gilda can't stand aside.

With an unlikely alliance that includes a reluctant saloonkeeper, a scandalous chanteuse, and talking animals who know the forest's language, she hatches a plan no one expects: a staged performance that exposes the cruelty behind the spectacle and offers a better way. But changing a town's appetite is harder than freeing one cub-Waltoon has money and influence, the ranch hands have claws of their own, and justice in Hip Deep bends to tradition.

Gilda risks her life to confront ruthless roustabouts and defy corrupt businessmen. Can she transform a business, reunite a family, and teach a whole community how to see animals as kin rather than curiosities? Or will she and her allies suffer the consequences?