Ahmed was ousted from the Iraqi Army because American and Iraqi military officers saw Khalid, an Iranian agent, trying to recruit him in his hospital bed after he survived a car bomb in Mosul. Ahmed finds and savagely beats the man who got him in trouble, thus making him a mortal enemy.
After leaving the battlefield, someone offers Ahmed mercenary work outside Iraq, which he later reluctantly accepts to support his wife and son. However, after a family member is murdered, Ahmed is forced to seek protection from a Green Beret who once trained Ahmed and is now working in Baghdad's Green Zone for the CIA station chief - a clever and compassionate woman named Nancy.
Nancy must use Ahmed for more dangerous work if his family is to enjoy her protection and eventually be given residency in Europe with a nest egg. In the course of these duties, Ahmed is hijacked by a nefarious and inexplicably powerful American official named Ken, who uses him for targeted killings in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. To get away from it all, Ahmed has to conclude several missions outside Iraq, some of which are shameful and others altruistic.
The torment resumes years into Ahmed's resettlement with his family when Ken needs an assassin again. It will only end when Ahmed and his former American supporters can bring the tyrant to justice for crimes that harmed thousands of people in several world regions.