Nick Conover, the son of a factory worker, is the CEO of a major corporation in a company town. Once the most admired man in Fenwick, Michigan, Nick - having presided over massive layoffs - is now the most despised. A single parent since the recent death of his wife, he's struggling to insulate his ten-year-old daughter and angry sixteen-year-old son from the town's hostility. Then his family is threatened by a nameless stalker, events spin quickly out of control - and suddenly Nick is faced with a dead body and damning circumstances. To protect his family, he must cover up the homicide but a police investigator with an agenda of her own is determined to connect Nick to the homicide. Nick, in the meantime, begins to unravel a web of intrigue within his own corporation ...and, with everything he spent his life working for hanging in the balance, Nick Conover discovers that life at the top is just one small step away from a long plunge to the bottom.