Just when he thinks he's clear of the meth business, Lyle Villines gets busted cold cooking for a friend. After his arrest, he's approached by a DEA agent who wants him to work as an informant - and take down someone high up in a Mexican cartel. It's a tall order for a small-time player like Lyle, but one he can't refuse. If he doesn't do it, he'll only be seeing his kids during prison visiting hours.

He goes back into business and is immediately confronted by two local thugs who want a piece of the action - either he cooks for them, or he doesn't cook at all. Searching for a way around them, he meets Carl and Zeke Higgins, members of a local family distributing meth for the Sinaloa cartel. Before he knows it, he's so far in he can't get out.

The only way to go is up - all the way to the top to cartel leader Joaquín Guzmán himself. Along the way, he has to deal with the local thugs and a Kentucky family hell-bent on holding his bosses hostage.

And in the end, what Guzmán asks of him might be too much.