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The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a tremendous toll on the mental health of our troops. In 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama took to the Senate floor to tell his colleagues that "many of our injured soldiers are returning from Iraq with traumatic brain injury", which doctors were calling the "signature wound" of the Iraq War. Alarming stories of veterans taking their own lives raised a host of vital questions: For instance, why hadn't the military been better prepared to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI)?

While in Las Vegas on his way to a family Fourth of July celebration, FBI bomb expert Paul Grale hears a deep blast and sees the smoke rising. In an unfolding nightmare, Grale discovers his sister, brother-in-law, and many friends were caught up in the explosion. Grief stricken, he is pulled from the main bomb investigation to sift orphan leads. Quietly he begins a relentless search for the bomb maker.

Every war has its "signature wounds", injuries inflicted by frightening new weapons and tactics the U.S. military has never faced before. Blistered flesh from mustard gas in World War I. Petroleum burns from oil and gas igniting on the surface of the Pacific in World War II. And now, lost legs, hands, and most devastating of all, genitals, as a result of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in today's war in Afghanistan.