In 1931, five individuals who met by chance in Glenwood, Minnesota, brought down a well-known mobster running a host of illegal businesses at a nearby secluded lake resort. Their efforts were kept secret to protect them from mob retribution. Unknown at the time was that a sixth person was affected by the aftermath of the police raid. Henry Hanson, a local town leader, had fled to Charleston, South Carolina and assumed a new identity to keep himself safe.

Over the years, while dodging discovery by the mob, Hanson builds a hotel empire under the alias, Henry Granville. As retirement nears in 1960, however, he has two concerns. In case his shadowy past is ever revealed, he wants a written account of his life to defend himself and the reputation of his enterprise. Secondly, he must choose his successor, someone who would protect the image of the corporation. For the scribe he selects a young Minnesota journalist, Matt Lawton, just four years out of college and the son of two of the original five from that weekend back in 1931. Together, Lawton and Granville craft the older man's life story.

In this second book of the Minnesota Lake series, Granville relates his early years as a leader of a lakeside community while being the de facto middleman dealing with a gangster-dominated lake resort. In doing so, he must avert his past life from causing the ruin of his current one.