Sleepy Benteen County, Kansas, turns frantic on election day. Sheriff English, better known as Englishman, faces his toughest re-election challenge yet. The radical religious right is out to unseat him, their candidate an Iraq war hero. But Englishman's only available deputy isn't winning him votes. That very morning, while pursuing a vehicle, the hurried deputy rammed a school bus carrying the Benteen County teen choir.

Englishman's brother, Mad Dog, a born-again Cheyenne, rushes back from a quest to the Black Hills. He has had a premonition that the sheriff is in serious danger. Meanwhile, the sheriff's daughters, attending separate colleges, wake with similar fears, cut classes, and hurry home to keep their father safe.

The sheriff believes the girls are the ones in need of protection as election day grows ever wilder. A student smuggles a gun into the school and begins shooting and taking hostages. A private army has seized a nearby farm and holds citizens, including Mad Dog, against their will. And, when he finds some spare time, Englishman needs to clear up one little thing about his deputy's accident: Benteen County doesn't have a teen choir. All this by sundown. It's enough to make a sheriff wonder why he wants to serve another term.