Every legend must start somewhere.

Cooter Holland's career as a Tier-1 counterterrorism operative ended with the ambush that very nearly took his life. Still physically and emotionally damaged by the experience, he has returned to New Orleans and joined the Louisiana State Patrol. Gone far too long to still call himself a 'yat,' as lifelong residents of New Orleans do, he is nonetheless determined to protect the city of his birth as it rebuilds in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The detective's physical and emotional demons quickly drive away the senior detectives that NOPD's Chief of Detectives has assigned to mentor him. Chief Bill Avery decides his troubled detective's heavily redacted history of finding the sort of bad people who did not want to be found makes him perfect for tracking down the suspect in a double homicide who has been intimidating the witnesses to his alleged crime. Yet, as Detective Holland closes in on his quarry, he finds himself at odds with NOPD. He questions the suspect's guilt and begins searching for the far more dangerous criminals he believes caused the shooting.

Inspector Holland's first manhunt exemplifies the sort of unintended consequences that seem to follow him, shaping not only the course of his future in law enforcement but his future in post-Katrina New Orleans.