Thirty-two-year-old Trevor Barnett has inadvertently become the lead spokesman for the tobacco industry just as it's on the verge of extinction, facing a $200 billion lawsuit that it will be unable to appeal. America's tobacco companies react by doing the unthinkable - closing their plants and recalling their products. The message is clear: no more cigarettes until the industry is given iron-clad protection from the courts.
As the economy falters and chaos takes hold, Trevor finds himself the target of enraged smokers, gun-toting smugglers, and a government that has been cut off from one of its largest sources of revenue. Soon it becomes apparent that this had always been his function - to take the brunt of the backlash and shield the men in power from the maelstrom they'd created. As he is slowly abandoned by an industry that his own ancestors helped to create, Trevor begins to fight back.