Aaron Hallam is one of the U.S. military's most skilled hand-to-hand combat operatives. Plagued by traumatic flashbacks of death and destruction, he regresses into a feral, survivalist state in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. There, he deliberately and elaborately hunts and kills poachers who happen to cross his path. When the FBI investigates the murders, they call in the man who taught Hallam everything he knows: retiree L.T. Bonham. As the instructor pursues his unhinged former pupil, Bonham begins to learn about key events in Hallam's life that pushed him over the edge.