Madeline Crowne escapes a violent home, discovers love for the first time, but war and betrayal threaten to destroy it.
Seeking a world away from abuse, she joins the army. Her first deployment is Afghanistan. Initially a hero, she is later accused of a war crime she did not commit. On the run, near death, she is saved by a woman named Mira, a survivor of the civil wars of Lebanon.
Shared sorrows seem to form a perfect friendship, but in time desire and deceit cast shadows. Mira is an illegal arms dealer, drawing Madeline into an underworld as a means of seduction.
In another part of the Afghan war, Eliot Lange is accused of desertion as he tried to save a comrade. Panicked, he flees to America.
Madeline sees through Mira's duplicity, rejects her advances and finds a way home. Madeline and Eliot's paths intersect in their native Sacramento, where they fall in love, but the FBI is pursuing them. And Eliot is holding back a fearful secret, for he has a distant connection to Mira. Before he can confess, the FBI is closing in. Mira finds them first. Spurned, jealous, she has a plan for a perfect revenge.
