Young Louisiana state trooper, Travis A. Gaspard, patrols the highways of his state looking for drug smugglers and confiscates a large haul of Columbian cocaine which was destined for the east coast of the United States. At nearly the same time, Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait and the U.S. armed forces are called to prepare for war. Tag, as the young trooper prefers to be called, is a United States Marine Corps reservist, and as such must leave the state police and his wife to fight Saddam's army overseas. While preparing for battle in the sandy lands of the foreign country, Marine Corps Captain Gaspard is notified of his wife's untimely death back home. He returns to Louisiana immediately for her funeral and to sort out the circumstances of her demise. Post war and several years later, the new Superintendent of the State Police appoints Lieutenant Tag Gaspard to head up the Special Investigations Unit of the department. He is later ordered to join a task force with the New Orleans and Houston Police Departments in hopes of solving a triple homicide. Dealing with personnel from other departments presents its own issues to the lieutenant in more ways than one. Combined with the haunting fact that he still has not closed the case of his own wife's murder, the twists and turns of the current investigation begin to take a toll on the task force leader. Follow the saga of the law enforcement veteran through South Louisiana on the current investigation, and his efforts to deal with critical "matters of heart."