Vernon Parrish, a retired mayor of a large suburb just outside of Chicago, had moved to the small town of Livingston, Montana, for peace and solitude and to get out of the public eye. After six years, Verne's past returns to haunt him, driving him into a self-imposed exile at his cabin in the woods, hoping to ride out the media storm. While he is away, a storm of a different form rolls in, drastically changing the world as he knew it, culminating in a tale of a man who is both a victim and a beneficiary of circumstance.