Crime boss Georgio Gambino abducts Sean "Mick" McPherson's pregnant wife, Emma, and his friend's two daughters and contracts to sell them and another group of women—some into forced labor, others as sex slaves, and a few for their organs.
Gambino confines three best friends—Mick, a PI; Joe, a homicide detective; and Rafferty, an FBI special agent—to Pines & Quill writing retreat and pits them against each other with a warning: "Mick, if you try to save Emma, I'll kill Joe's daughters. Joe, if you try to save your daughters, I'll kill Emma. And Rafferty, if you help Mick or Joe, I'll kill your fiancée, Ivy."
With help from the writers in residence—a fiction novelist, a retired maritime pilot, the granddaughter of a legendary pearl diver, and a prior mountain climber now double-amputee—Mick, Joe, and Rafferty manage to sneak away and journey to Mount Baker, where the captives await transport. Along the way, the three best friends learn the lines they'll cross to save the people they love.