In March 1997, Major Jack Reacher is briefed by his superior Colonel Leon Garber on a troubling development in Carter's Crossing, Mississippi: a woman has been found murdered, her throat slit, with signs of rape, and the military is concerned that one of the potential suspects seems to be Captain Reed Riley, a commander at Fort Kelham, a nearby Army Ranger base, with a reputation as a ladykiller.

When the mother of the dead boy commits suicide by standing in front of a moving train, he travels to the Pentagon and confronts Frazer, having realized that he had a personal interest in protecting the army's relationship with Carlton Riley.

Neagley arranges for the death to be labeled an accident, and takes Reacher to Garber, who provides him with a confidential file painting Deveraux as a sociopath who broke the arm of a woman named Alice Bouton out of jealousy.

Reacher learns something interesting: "Janice Chapman" was an assumed identity, and that the victim is really Audrey Shaw, a former intern for Carlton Riley who was paid to leave her position after having an affair with the senator.

After subduing a team of unarmed artillerymen sent to arrest him for violating orders, he and Munro work to separate the Rileys from the rest of the partygoers, allowing Reacher to take them hostage.