Before Dealey Plaza. Before Oswald. The road to conspiracy started in Chicago '63.

Homer Echevarria is a Cuban exile committed to freeing his homeland from Fidel Castro and the evils of Communism. Thomas Vallee is a mercenary who helped Echevarria and the US government train Cuban refugees to fight Castro. Both men blame President Kennedy for the humiliation they suffered during The Bay of Pigs invasion. Echevarria and Vallee once again join forces when fate allows them to avenge their fallen comrades. To strike a blow for freedom. Their allies in the federal government and the Chicago Police Department have arranged for President Kennedy to come to Chicago, thus setting the stage for them to deliver their own brand of justice. The plot: four U.S.-trained Cuban assassins and Vallee will ambush the president on his way to attend the Army-Air Force football game the following month. Each group of sharpshooters will operate independently of the other, thus assuring at least one bullet will find its mark.

Due to President Kennedy's insistence, Abraham Golden is the first African American Secret Service agent assigned to a presidential protection detail. Having since transferred to the Chicago Field Office, he sees two glaring problems with the president's visit in two days. The first is the amount of chatter he detects among the Windy City's many hate groups. The second is a slow turn off the Jackson Exit that will force the motorcade to a crawl, thus making President Kennedy an easy target. After his concerns fall on deaf ears, Golden must use his skill and cunning to fight adverse influences both inside and outside his own government to uncover the plot against the president. His renegade investigation soon uncovers an international plan so broad that it spans from the halls of power in Washington to the mean streets of Chicago. Golden risks everything he holds dear to stop the plot and save the man he'd once swore to protect. Even if it means his career...and his life.