It seldom happens that a complete stranger calls to say you must help him, as you are the only person who can save his life. And yet Kent Baker, an ex-DEA agent who is on a hiatus from the agency due to being considered as a loose cannon, gets such a plea.
At first, he puts it off as a prank call from some acquaintance with way too much time on his hands. But the caller is not an old friend and seems painfully sincere, so in the end Kent decides to help the fellow out.
In doing so he discovers that a prank call would have definitely been for the better, as what is involved is an accusation of a sexual assault on a young teenaged girl and a woman being brutally beaten, followed closely by other folks dying in cruel ways.
It soon becomes evident that all these horrific goings-on revolve around Kent's having shown up in the close-knit, peaceful village of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, to help a lonely man who most desperately needed help.
But Baker is not one to run from such situations. Fact of the matter is, he is more than ready to match violence with violence, and so he immerses himself in what becomes a chaotic, blood-soaked whodunit, a mystery where even those who should love you are not to be trusted.