LuAnn Tyler is a twenty-year-old unwed mother in Rikersville, Georgia, a woman who can use her fists as well as her wits, a woman striving to escape an abusive relationship and a life of endless poverty. Suddenly, under the pretense of giving her a decent job, a mysterious Mr. Jackson makes her an offer he thinks no one can refuse: a guarantee to be the next winner of the $100 million national lottery.

But LuAnn won't do it. At first. Then, less than twenty-four hours later, she is fighting for her life and running from a false murder charge. Jackson's offer -- and its condition that she leave the country forever -- seems to be her only hope. She accepts his proposition and the new life the unlimited wealth buys her and her infant daughter. Ten years later, LuAnn disobeys Jackson and secretly returns to the United States, where she is still wanted for murder.

There, she meets Matthew Riggs, a man whose origins are as murky and troublesome as her own. LuAnn's life is shattered when a canny reporter smelling a scam in the national lottery picks up her trail, and Jackson, a seemingly omniscient master of impersonation, comes to punish her for disobeying him. At the same time, the FBI is set on her track when investigators suspect someone may have fixed the lottery. While the hunters close in for the kill, LuAnn finds herself turning to Matt Riggs for help, but he may be just another predator in her life.