Corrupt FBI agent Tyonek Horse has lured a retired NCIS agent, Woodrow Barstow, to Summerlin, Florida, to kill him. Barstow is a threat to his ambitions. When Barstow's body is found on a darkened beach, local sheriff Derek Chubleigh assigns Detective Sergeant Randa Sorel to handle the investigation. The FBI, calling the incident a matter of national security, orders Chubleigh to surrender the case to Tyonek Horse, unaware that he is the killer. Chubleigh refuses because he is given no reason to explain to the media why his office is not in charge.Randa's search into the secrets Woody Barstow had uncovered exposes her to a lethal network of international criminals. Her life is threatened when she plunges relentlessly into a swamp of murder and deceit and corruption, propelled not only by the sheriff's demands but by personal demands of her own.