John Steinbeck once said Montana is a love affair. If a person was going to make his troth with any particular place on earth, I don't think he could find a better one than this stretch of road. Every bridge crossed a postcard stream, every mountain tumbled into one higher and a deeper green than itself.

But in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana, the love affair has a chilling side, as ex-Texas Ranger, now lawyer, Billy Bob Holland discovers on a visit to his friend from Vietnam days, Doc Voss. Doc's daughter Maisey is brutally gang-raped by bikers and ring leader Lamar Ellison walks free when the DNA samples 'get lost'. Billy Bob wonders: whose side is the sheriff on?

Soon after, Ellison is burned alive and Doc is arrested. So much for Billy Bob's vacation...

Doc needs a lawyer, and fast. Not only that: newly released killer, the grotesque Wyatt Dixon has tracked Billy Bob to Montana, bent on avenging the death of his sister for which he holds Billy Bob responsible. As the corpses of the guilty and innocent pile up, Billy Bob stands alone, still haunted by his dead friend L.Q. Navarro, determined that the centre will hold, no matter what evil threatens it.