After a near-fatal hunting accident, Jim Johnson started his second term as mayor of Grandin Road. It’s a challenging task, one that only a few can handle. Johnson isn’t used to arguments in the corporation boardroom and has always demanded undivided attention to the project at hand and those that take part in them. When the city council members become argumentative and downright hostile to his proposals, he calls on CW Coleman to settle the disputes between the members and himself. “Ain’t no damn fool going to stick his head in a gator’s mouth, and that’s just what you’d be doing if you cross Coleman,” he tells his daughter, Katie. Coleman, who is a member of the council by right but not an active participant, suddenly finds himself surrounded with a multitude of petty problems that he has no time for and far less patience. He and Johnson begin to resolve each issue in a timely fashion until one of his employees disappears. Johnson has an idea of who’s involved, but for reasons of his own, he hesitates to tell Coleman. The same reasons that his daughter, Katie, left Taylor County for twenty years. Johnson doesn’t want to reveal that there might be a mob connection and have to deal with Coleman’s reaction to that small fact.