An advance team of armed antigovernment dissidents have been permitted by a radicalized co-owner to take over a luxury ski resort under construction near the summit of Big Snowy Mountain in central Montana. Intent on making the resort into a defensible redoubt for disparate members of the American militia movement, they have forced all resort staff and construction crews to leave, jeopardizing the scheduled grand opening of the resort and threatening the other two co-owners with financial ruin.

William Church, a freelance recovery specialist based in San Francisco and London, is persuaded by the resort's beleaguered co-owners to undertake the dangerous mission of evicting the dissidents and their radicalized sponsor. Sensitive to the fast approaching date for the grand opening, Church is under pressure to accomplish the mission quickly and to do it in a way that does not cause the resort unfavorable publicity.

Using subterfuge, misdirection, and forcible confrontation, Church shatters the group's cohesiveness and chain of command, making the dissidents vulnerable. But pushback from the more assertive of the men leads to murder, kidnapping, and other hazards that Church and the woman under his protection have to deal with.