The story is set in Washington, D.C. in 2018, during the Trump administration. Senior federal budget reviewer Gene Westmoreland refuses to approve funds for an administration initiative called Operation Firefang—building clandestine nuclear missile sites world-wide—on the grounds that it is illegal and violates treaty agreements. The administration attacks him. A general and a senator rebuke him, his phone is tapped, his car is tailed, and his adult son is trapped into a dangerous relationship.