It didn't all happen just this way, but it could have. . .

Marcos Ayala is a Juarez businessman. His business is drugs and whores and like any other entrepreneur, he has problems to deal with. One of them is the U.S. Border Patrol. To get his loads across the border he must constantly find ways to thwart their vigilance. Another is keeping his women in line, a never-ending nuisance, and he has a new girl who is more trouble than most. Luz Ortega was just a young country girl. But now she finds herself a captive, sold into a Juarez whorehouse and apparently doomed to the life. Even if she escapes she can never go home again. Is death the only way out?

Or does Rafael Salinas offer hope? Rafael Salinas is a retired alien smuggler. He made his money, then, when drugs came onto the scene and the business turned violent, he retired. Now he has been forced back into the business-his granddaughter was kidnapped to compel his performance. He does it, but he vows vengeance.

Tom "The Real" Diehl has been around the block a few times while wearing the Border Patrol's gold badge. He's seen it all in El Paso; there aren't many surprises left. Or so he thought, until he and his rookie partner follow tracks in the sand to catch a group of smuggled aliens. It seemed like any other trail - until he thinks later about how they acted. Then it makes no sense. Something new is going on and they've to figure out what it is.

Ken Travis' biggest problem since he graduated from the Academy is getting Tom Diehl to talk to him. Then, suddenly, violence strikes and the real learning process begins. There are guns and drugs and very bad men out there, men willing to kill. How he handles the job can mean life or death, and he'd better get it right because the price for getting it wrong is paid in blood. It all comes together in the end, but like life, not how you expect.