Nikolai Fyodorov, a young Russian assassin on a mission to punish a turncoat in Alaska's largest city, is instead humiliated by a mysterious gunman. Nikolai is given one chance to redeem himself with a new assignment that will shape the U.S. Senate -- and to do it he must go to the windy, hot plains of Kansas. What he finds is a state beset by industrial farming, extreme right-wing politics, and kidnappers who prey on teenage girls. Nikolai confronts the betrayal that led him into the assassin's trade and the price he must pay for his family's past -- and he must escape the temptation of love that draws him toward his own death.