When a federal inspector is pushed from a bridge onto the patrol car of Brazoria County Texas Sheriff Josh McCall, McCall is plunged into a tangled web of murders, international drug smuggling, and backstreet Washington politics. As McCall's investigations focus on a suspicious chemical plant in his county, more murders occur as the Metillo drug cartel tries to prevent discovery of the chemical plant's secret. But when the murdered inspector is found to be not only the brother of university professor Jamie Villanueva but also an undercover CIA agent, who only days before his murder had been in Venezuela investigating the Metillo cartel, McCall meets with CIA agent Kelley Castellano. Kelley and Jamie retrace the dead CIA agent's steps in Venezuela to uncover the cartel's plan for smuggling cocaine-laden chocolate into the US, a plan that includes attempts to induce the US government at its highest level to unwittingly agree to a trade agreement that will assure cocaine-laden chocolate shipments into the US without discovery. In Venezuela, Kelley and Jamie are captured as they learn details of the cartel's operations and face torture and death. In Texas, attempts to prevent the discovery of the murderers of the CIA agent draws Pasadena Police Chief Floyd Daigle into the investigation. As McCall and Daigle work together to unravel the connection between murders in their separate jurisdictions, an attempt is made to kill McCall before he can unmask the ringleaders of the drug smuggling operation.