On a rainy summer evening in Minnesota, a sheriff's deputy steps out of a diner and a few minutes later he's lying dead in the mud. When state investigator Kirk Stevens arrives on the scene, he discovers a single suspect: a hysterical young woman holding the deputy's own gun. She has no ID, speaks no English.

Stevens investigates alongside Carla Windermere, his partner in the new joint state and FBI task force, and the two find themselves on the trail of a vast international people trafficking ring. As they hunt down those who exploit desperate women, Stevens and Windermere come face-to-face with a man know as the Dragon: the most vicious man either of them has ever encountered.

These women are victims. But can Stevens and Windermere ensure they become survivors?