When retired journalist Jim Stanton learns of the death of long-lost friend Mickey Buchanan, he is drawn into what he thinks is a nostalgic visit to his roots in Michigan’s northern lower peninsula.
In reality, this trip forces him to exercise his best traits as an investigative reporter while relying on training he learned as a covert warrior during the Vietnam War to stay alive. Stanton’s life following his military service has been a tribute to thought over violence; reflection over action. For 35 years he has known that his mental makeup was no match for his talents for military work. He has lived his life believing his lacked the toughness that makes a successful soldier.
At the time of his death, Buchanan is putting together his final big deal of his business career – Penny Point on Copper Creek, a 700-plus-acre residential golf and outdoor activity development for the truly wealthy in the rustic Manistee River Valley of Michigan. The village of Mineral Springs is to be home to this legacy to Buchanan’s business acumen and daring entreprenuerism.
Led by the local newspaper’s editorials, not everyone in Mineral Springs is excited by the prospect of Buchanan’s development. Owner and publisher Janice Coldwell insists that the project will add nothing to the quality of life in their village but will escalate property prices – along with all other costs of living there – to the point of excluding most of the current working class residents who make up the community.
Stanton arrives in Mineral Valley and discovers reported facts about Buchanan’s death in complete discord with the core traits he knew of his old friend. His initial questions cause police to reopen the official inquiry.
He and Coldwell meet and find themselves instantly attracted to each other. For him it’s the first female attraction since his wife’s death six years ago; for her it is the first time her drive to build her newspaper has been diverted even slightly by her attraction to a man.
Stanton encourages Coldwell and her newspaper staff to look deeply into the Penny Point project. They learn that the project is now being managed by a company called Next Cool Place, LLC which is run by Buchanan’s widow, Charlotte. As the newspaper’s coverage closes in on Next Cool Place principals, Stanton is shocked by what appear to be vicious and seemingly “over-the-top” reactions.
A reporter on Coldwell’s staff is savagely beaten after spending a day in the Kalkaska County courthouse researching property dealings and purchase prices relating to Mineral Valley and Copper Creek.
These attacks lead the official inquiry to close in further on the principals of the Next Cool Place who in turn escalate their reactions.
Using the training from his military past, Stanton survives an attack in his Oregon home in a scene that provides him a clear insight into the ruthless nature of his adversaries. He then arranges around-the-clock protection for Coldwell, and as a result she barely escapes an attempt to kill her that ends in burning down her Mineral Valley home.
The police become fully engaged after a deadly shoot-out on the banks of Copper Creek which again tests Stanton’s decades-old training and leaves a police detective critically wounded.
The two journalists continue their pursuit of the story while they fall in love. Doggedly following interview after interview, they finally unravel the exact nature of Buchanan’s genius and the plot that ended his life.
The story climaxes in a confrontation with Charlotte where Coldwell gives Stanton a new definition of courage and grit.
The final scene is one of warmth and reflection even as Stanton and Coldwell recognize the strain that their long-distance relationship will put on their love in the future.