In the quiet library of his luxurious penthouse apartment in Washington, DC, Wallace Lamont, Chairman of a large industrial conglomerate, plots the defeat of Congressman Matthew Monroe in the upcoming primary election. The Congressman, a staunch environmentalist from southern Utah, is blocking a large contract that Lamont's firm desperately needs. Lamont's plan is to resurrect the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1980s, a time when the hard working citizens who lived in the West and used public lands for cattle grazing, timber cutting, and mining, fought against the Bureau of Land Management and its burdensome environmental regulations. By re-igniting the flames of discontent in rural Utah, Lamont hopes to turn the voting public against Monroe. Lamont hires a political operative by the name of Oblonsky who specializes in dirty tricks. Oblonsky arrives in Moab, Utah, and takes steps to stir up trouble. He's creative and effective, and wastes no time pitting environmentalists against cattlemen who graze their herds on public lands. Things quickly get out of hand, leading to devastating consequences for certain local citizens. Once trouble like this is started, it can be hard to rein in. It sometimes takes on a life of its own.