Wilson Hand, the other enlisted man who traveled with Cliff and Captain Fleming on their regular circuit of intelligence contacts, a minor character in The Alleys of Eden, is the main character in Sun Dogs. Divorced, a private investigator going broke, Hand accepts a job with a major oil company to investigate the theft of company documents from sites in Alaska.

Frequently distracted by flashbacks to his week as a prisoner of the Viet Cong during his military service, Hand is also troubled by his ex-wife's mental illness and suicide. Pursuing truth in the extremes of Alaskan winter, he encounters "no-strings-attached sex" with Marta Walsh whom he discovers eventually to be more free than he cared to know. As shuttling between New York and northern Alaska brings him to a full grasp of his assignment, Hand and his bush pilot companion are forced down in a...