Shortly after an explosive op-ed piece about the 9/11 investigation appears in the New York Times, its author, former senator and co-chair of the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry Commission, John Billington, is murdered near his Florida home. Enter Tony Ramos, ex-Special Forces operative, former aid to Senator Billington, and currently a State Department intelligence analyst. Billington, having sensed the danger he faced, has left Ramos detailed instructions for an investigation into suspected Saudi complicity in 9/11. Ramos, in conjunction with Billington's daughter Laura, uncovers a shocking international conspiracy linking the Saudi Kingdom to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Despite efforts to derail their investigation, whose scope encompasses Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, Ramos and Laura discover that the Kingdom has recently provided bin Laden and al-Qaeda with three nuclear devices, two of which are successfully detonated by the terrorists overseas. But they were just a warmup to the grand finale. The third device, Ramos learns, will be detonated off the California coast. Now Ramos and a team of Special Forces must race against time to prevent al-Qaeda from unleashing nuclear disaster on American shores and beyond.