Lester Mullen, an Angola Penitentiary inmate, is doing thirty years of hard time for the brutal rape of Mindy Pritchard, the daughter of a Franklin parish sheriff's deputy. Within a few months of Lester's sentencing, and only four days after Miss Mindy's suicide, the Mullen family begins to disappear one by one into thin air, just as the victim's father had promised in a courtroom full of witnesses.
Retired Louisiana State Police Lieutenant Travis "Tag" Gaspard's reputation for solving difficult cases has garnished the attention of the state's governor, who orders his superintendent of state police to un-retire the investigator and assign him to find the missing Mullen folks. After a contentious meeting with the state police leader, Tag decides to return to a familiar role; taking the lead on the strange case in the cotton belt of north Louisiana.
From the moment Tag arrives in the town of Winnsboro, the investigation unfolds in several directions, leading to more questions than answers. However, the ex-trooper has the unique ability to follow the relevant evidence that leads him in the right direction. Follow the detective's trek of a seemingly simple case; that is, until undercurrents from the nation's war on terror begin to surface.