In 1992 the minds of Paul Souther and Mary Prince, two desperately damaged people, connect. At the same time, they encounter and are threatened by, a dark man who appears in many faces always black--always with violence. Paul flees into back roads and drunkenness. Mary is locked in a mental institution, impossibly pregnant with the dark man's child.In LA, two African American men, a tabloid reporter, and a celebrity TV preacher, are on the trail of the same mysterious man. They follow the tracks of rage and race leading throughout the city. At every hot spot the dark man is seen pulling strings and spreading the message of race war.On the road, Paul joins with an odd pair of men, who share his connection to Mary and fear of the dark man. Everyone is drawn to the city of Los Angeles and Mary's side just as her baby is born. None of them have any idea that LA is a ticking bomb of anger. As riots explode, the big man, who now claims to be a god, reveals himself to be an ancient, dark power using the rage of the people to stoke his own, literal, fires. He demands Mary's child as sacrifice to keep the city, and perhaps the nation from burning. It falls to Paul, a faithless man, and a drunk with blood on his own hands, to make the impossible choice between the child and the city, and to save the people he has come to care about.