Brolin Walker is an ex-soldier and drug addict who smokes his days away in Texas with his dog Red. Following an incident with his drug lord boss, Brolin plans to flee Texas for good, but when his mother in law shows up at his door asking him to travel to North Dakota to pay a ransom for his estranged stepson's body, he finds himself making the trip. But when Brolin arrives at Devils Lake to pay the ransom the body never turns up and he barely escapes the night with his life. Determined to find out what happened to his stepson, Brolin begins a deadly journey that takes them into an underworld of drug kingpins, treacherous addicts, and violent hitmen. When someone Brolin thought he could trust leaves him for dead drowning in an icy swamp, this sets off a spasm of murder where Brolin's enemies realize that he is a ticking time bomb of violence. This all hurtles to a deadly conclusion that is just as shocking as Brolin's past.