Army Ranger Jack Grant and his unit mount an operation to rob a train inside Pakistan. They find senior Taliban commanders carrying cases stuffed with documents and money. They also contain a clue to a catastrophic new development. A new ally in their perpetual search for bigger, more powerful weapons. An ally prepared to supply them with nuclear devices, weapons with the power to devastate entire American cities. North Korea.
The Rangers have a clandestine mission, to infiltrate the nuclear facility in Sanwon, a few klicks above the 38th Parallel. Destroy the nukes, and get out again. Aided by a beautiful South Korean nuclear scientist, Captain Ri Sung-mi, they will travel to the target by North Korean submarine, courtesy of a group of defectors. A leaking, obsolete Romeo class diesel electric boat unfit to sail on anything more than the local boating lake. Pursued every step of the way, they manage to enter the facility. Shot at, shelled and exposed to massive doses of radiation, they must battle overwhelming odds to carry out their mission. The Rangers know they are on a one way journey, and time is running out fast on what is left of their lives.