Crime is on the rise and the government is losing the battle to control it due to a new enemy called Woke.
Glen Eagan, a columnist for a daily paper, has his life torn apart by a teenage tearaway named Donny Williams. Williams had stolen his mother's car keys and taken his friends for a joy ride. Williams wild escapade ends with the demise of Eagan's eight-year-old girl, Tammy.
Williams is tried for his crime, but Gren Eagan is consumed with anger over the court's leniency toward the boy.
After the trial, Glen is approached by a stranger who calls himself John Taylor. Taylor believes he has the answer to the country's dispassionate attitude towards serious crime.
While Eagan initially agrees with Taylor's views, he draws the line at re-trying and executing felons that have dodged adequate reprisals for their crime.
Considering their conversation took place in a bar, Glen dismisses their conversation as just pub banter. That is until a rival paper reports that Williams himself has been the victim of a hit and run driver. Coincidence thinks Glen until his car goes missing and he finds himself the victim of blackmail.