"I was actually becoming paranoid, an obvious emotional result of my guilt and fear. Me, George Lamont: the confident, self-assured consultant to heads of corporations and federal officials. What had taken hold of me?"

On a routine business trip, industrial consultant George Lamont checks into a motel room in South Carolina and finds a leather case containing more than $2 million. Arrogance and greed prevent him from immediately reporting his find to authorities, not knowing how his selfish actions will set off a chain reaction of violence and greed.

When those who want the money stab one of the motel's maids to death, the police descend on the town, and George immediately heads to the airport to fly home to Florida. After some investigation, George discovers that the money is ransom demanded by terrorists who have kidnapped a foreign official's son. With little time to spare and plagued by guilt, George learns that the foreign official's son is found dead in Cyprus, George has a bad feeling that he may be next .