After a kidnap-for-hire plot results in the death of a young boy, Burr police chief Emmett Hardy blames himself and has an alcohol-fueled breakdown. His life at a crossroads, Hardy checks into the hospital for treatment, only to discover upon his release that he's been suspended from duty. When a dying prisoner contacts him about a long-forgotten unsolved case, Emmett—temporarily at loose ends—begins an informal investigation.

The residents of tiny Butcherville, Oklahoma, love their God-given freedoms so much, they refuse to hire their own police force. When they need a cop, they just call Emmett Hardy, police chief of Burr, the closest neighboring town. Whether it’s to break up a fight, dissuade an angry good ol’ boy from hunting rabbits with an M-16, or eject an unruly patron from Butcherville’s combination strip joint and bookstore, Emmett’s always glad to oblige...that is, until a local business owner’s lust for money and power results in a deadly shootout and multiple kidnappings.

When an unknown young African American woman is found murdered on the railroad tracks outside town, most of Burr, Oklahoma, would rather look the other way. The town’s police chief, troubled local hero and ex-Marine Emmett Hardy, doesn’t have that luxury. In his search for the killer, he’s forced to slice through layers of hate and hypocrisy to confront the ethical rot at the town’s core while being haunted by the vision of a life and love that might have been.

Across the Pacific Northwest, a twisted killer stalks victims representing ancient archetypes: The Ruler. The Warrior. The Scholar. The Priest. Four are dead, leaving FBI investigators puzzled by the macabre, color-coded shrines the killer left behind. And clues now point to a fifth victim.

Thomas Austin was once a prominent NYPD detective, known for locking up a psychopathic serial killer dubbed "The Holiday Baby Butcher". Now retired in a small beach town in the Pacific Northwest, Austin runs a little café, trying to overcome the loss of his wife, a DA who was gunned down only one year ago.