Whit Nelson, a former Vietnam helicopter pilot, and PTSD survivor is enjoying his new house in the wilds of Bucks County, PA. Big Davey McBride, his wife's father, and head of an international law firm, where she is a partner, proposes that Whit and Scotty take a working vacation to the south of France. Thus begins a nightmare journey that nearly destroys them both as they are confronted with the beginnings of the modern terrorist era in the person of Sanjak al-Rahman, an international playboy, and financier to terrorist groups. He forces them to grapple with many demons from their past, even as they, inadvertently, peel away the layers of his lurid and savage life.