Adán Barrera, the head of the world's most powerful drug cartel, is imprisoned in a San Diego jail in isolation. Art Keller, the DEA agent who arrested him after killing his brother and uncle, lives hidden in a New Mexico monastery where he keeps bees and tries to forget a life of lies and false identities. When Barrera manages to get transferred to a Mexican prison and take back control of the cartel, the drug war resumes with unprecedented brutality.
Keller is also forced to return to action, immersing himself in a world where honest people and corrupt ones, victims and assassins, are found on both sides of the border.