Tal Howard, a disillusioned Korean War veteran, breaks away from his old life, looking for answers and convinced he’s going to find them in the small town of Hillston. What’s in Hillston? Sixty grand in embezzled funds that Howard learned about from a dying friend in a POW camp.
Sam Schuler is starting a new family, trying to begin a respectable life, and trying to extricate himself from the seedy people he once knew. But when his former best friend involves him in a petty drug theft, a local street gang is stirred to action and Sam finds himself in the midst of a personal war that nothing in his life has prepared him for.
As the fiercely independent Kells rejects the appeals of various crime bosses who want to make use of his talents, powerful forces align against him. Being framed for a murder turns out to be the least of his troubles and as the stakes get higher, and the odds get longer, it’s only Kells’ nerve and toughness that keep him one step ahead of the law—and the reaper.