When California entrepreneur Hudson Bryant answers the phone, his old friend Gibby Gunderson shouts, "Hud, after all the other stuff they done to us, they killed our dog, Herman." The plea for help prompts Hud to fly to the aid of his old fishing buddy, who lives in retirement on the shores of Black Rock Bay near the Minnesota-Canada border. Hud anticipates a quick fix for his friend's problems. Instead, he finds himself on the first line of battle in a heated territorial conflict right out of the Old West, a conflict Hud can't hope to win with brute force alone.