Through an inexplicable series of unwanted promotions, Trevor Barnett has become the lead spokesman for the tobacco industry just as it's on the verge of extinction. Plaintiff's attorneys have finally found the weakness they've been searching for, and filed a $200 billion lawsuit that the industry will be unable to appeal.

America's tobacco companies react by doing the unthinkable - they close their plants and recall their products from retailers' shelves. Trevor is charged with the task of going on national television and making the announcement: Not another cigarette will be manufactured or sold until the industry is given ironclad protection from the courts.

As the economy falters and chaos takes hold, Trevor becomes the target of enraged smokers, gun-toting cigarette smugglers, and a government that has been cut off from one of its largest sources of revenue. Soon it becomes clear that this has always been his function - to take the brunt of the backlash and shield the men in power from the maelstrom they've created.

Abandoned by friends, family, and the industry his own ancestors helped build, Trevor finds an unlikely ally in a beautiful anti-tobacco lobbyist with whom he's secretly been in love with for years. Together they hatch a plan to fight back.