When Sarabeth Bingham's father is murdered, she leaves the LA Times to take over his weekly newspaper in central Kentucky and discovers that marijuana growing has corrupted the idyllic little community where she grew up. The Christian sheriff can't get a marijuana conviction because the county's jury pool is tainted. Her cousin grows weed and has lost his daughter to the world of drugs. After three children find dope money in an abandoned building and the dopers kidnap them to get it back, Sarabeth heeds the words on a plaque above her father's desk: Don't mess with a man who buys ink by the barrel. The next issue of the newspaper carries a front-page editorial designed to move its readers to action. The newspaper has declared war on dope, and the growers have to shut Sarabeth up -- and dopers fight dirty.