In a suspenseful tale of crime, revenge and punishment, author John Sandford introduces an array of characters, conflicts, and emotions, as he leads the reader through intricate and treacherous incidents and events. Lucas Davenport has, along with fellow police officers, participated in an attempted capture of two female bank robbers, an event that ends with the deaths of both women in a shootout on the bank steps. The women are the wife and sister of convicted felon Dick LaChaise, who, enraged by this incident, plots his prison escape and revenge. With the assistance of two crazed friends and the involuntary help of his wife's sister, Sandy Darling, LaChaise embarks upon a crime spree intended to kill loved ones of all officers involved in the bank robbery killings, following the Biblical "eye for an eye" approach.