When Mack Thomas's good friend, Shanty Lucas learns that the book he has published is banned along with many hundreds of other books, she knows she must do something about it. Because she is a billionaire several times over, money is readily available to hire someone to fight the book banning. She hires Mack and his entire detective agency, Refuge Rescuers to go after the people responsible for the book banning.

The leader of that group is the Republican governor of Wisconsin, Rod Desadist. He is also a presidential hopeful. The two people working closest with him are senator Ted Crustiest and congress woman Maggie Baylor Blue. Dasadist has gained control over nearly all of the government functions in his state. They include a large portion of law enforcement, many judges, and not too few lawyers, be they private or government owned.

Mack and everyone connected with him knows it is a dangerous fight they are going into, but none of them were quite prepared for the absolute danger they were about to deal with. As they moved ahead, death seemed to be the best word to describe what they faced.