In the waning days of his Governorship, Simon Pack learns he did not leave the Upper Yaak Valley of Montana in sound health. The area is teeming with criminal enterprises and countercultural elements. Not wanting to dump problems he believes he's responsible for onto the new Governor, Pack burrows into the unique Upper Yaak to identify and root out those complicated troubles. A crooked Sheriff pins a murder on Pack, and his release from charges involves a colossal legal confrontation.
After his release from confinement, Pack returns to the cauldron of the Yaak, this time to be taken hostage inside a compound of anti-government radicals.
Pack's final act involves tracking down a man and woman bent on perpetrating terrorist attacks in the four corners of America.
Main characters from the previous Pack novels are still here, but they are joined by a host of quirky new ones, including a lazy minister; a brilliant, exotic Asian lady and her evil boyfriend; Pack's love interest, Keeley Eliopoulous; a crooked game warden who colludes with a County Sheriff; Tetu's fiancée, Swan Threemoons; an honest Forest Ranger, Ranklin Shiningfish; and a 90-year-old man who in many ways is pivotal to solving the problems Pack faces.