When betrayal results in the cold-blooded murder of a busload of schoolchildren to accomplish the escape from custody of vicious sociopath Andrew Kane, New York District Attorney Butch Karp finds himself embroiled in a raging quest for vengeance that could cost him, his family, and thousands of others their lives. With an intensive manhunt ongoing for the fugitive Kane, Karp and long-time colleague Ray Guma open a cold case and pursue murder charges against wealthy Manhattan power broker/banker Emil Stavros, whose socialise wife disappeared nearly fifteen years earlier.

Meanwhile, Karp's wife, Marlene Ciampi, has let her fascination with her husband's lesser-known family comprised of Russian gangsters pull her into a dangerous world of Islamic terrorists, Chechen rebels, and Russian agents engaged in nefarious events straight out of today's real-world headlines.