A century of political, military, and social history come together in a devastating confluence of evil in this panoramic tale woven out of seemingly unconnected people and events. The fictional plot is intricately interwoven with little-known historical facts that make the incredible story frighteningly believable.

A treasure hunter in Key West in the 1950s, a helicopter pilot in Vietnam in the 1960s, anti-war activists in the 1970s, eco-warriors in the 1980s, post-cold war subversives, international terrorists, a present-day whitewater river guide, and a burned-out detective from LAPD, form the cast of characters.

Frustrated that their "revolution" never materialized, a cadre of geriatric radicals hatches a plot to blow up hydropower dams in the Pacific Northwest and replicate the great ice-age floods that carved the Columbia River Gorge. They get support through an uneasy alliance between old-line communists, the new incarnation of Russia's KGB, the government of Iran, and a would-be terrorist in Key West who has possession of a cold war era hydrogen bomb.

Undetected by Homeland Security, the unfolding plot is uncovered by "Swede" Larsson, Town Marshal in Riggins, Idaho (population 406), while investigating the seemingly accidental drowning of a young man in the Salmon River. As the scope of the conspiracy becomes apparent, Swede is joined in a desperate race to prevent a cataclysmic flood by his river guide friend Cassidy Pierce and former Vietnam combat pilot Terry Caldwell.