Set in an economically depressed America of the future where freedoms are being increasingly compromised, three stories of flawed characters unfold and intersect to define the gravity of the flaws and the strengths that overcome them. A grieving English professor steps out of character to pursue a dubious quest laden with danger and intrigue. A wife's love and devotion are pitted against her spouse's hot-headed jealousies as their family struggles to survive after he is forced to join a crime syndicate. And a young National Guardsman, striving to keep his own secret, discovers he has become an agent of the state even as he comes to fully understand the nature of its evil.