Charlie Cooper is a simple man. A few beers, an occasional day at the track, and time with his family are all it takes to keep him happy. But when Charlie goes to pay his income tax at the Milwaukee Federal Building and comes face-to-face with terrorists trying to annihilate his Midwestern lakefront city, his only concern is how to keep them from executing their diabolical plan. As he is thrown into combat with the men who have infiltrated the government building, he learns that the attack is only a small part of a nationwide terrorist plot.

Soon Charlie is entangled in a web of conspiracy that takes him from obscurity to the forefront of a battle to save the future of his country, his town, and his own life. Despite overwhelming odds, he spearheads a mission with the FBI and the president that takes him from the Midwest to the coast of Oregon, where he is compelled to penetrate the terrorists' inner sanctum, free the hostages they have taken, and destroy their stranglehold on America itself, but the clock is ticking...