Wyoming

Patrick Flaherty lives with chrometophobia, an irrational aversion to money. He has built a life as a subsistence farmer and hunter near Coolidge, Wyoming, a small town between the high plains and the Bighorn Mountains. He is far from a recluse, though. Patrick is woven into his community, and his friends and neighbors are glad to have him around.

In Washington, the administration has grown impatient with lawmakers who cannot agree on tax reform. Unwilling to wait for Congress to act on what it calls "revenue enhancement," the Treasury and Justice Departments comb the obscure corners of the tax code for taxable activities that people commonly fail to report. Officials intend to bring high-profile criminal cases to push more taxpayers toward honest reporting. Once the new directive reaches IRS agents nationwide, Special Agent Arthur Bolton ends up on a barstool at Cousin Clem's, the loudest bar in Coolidge, beside Patrick. The two men talk about life and football. Patrick mentions, almost in passing, how he looks for ways to help his friends and neighbors, who in turn keep him fed and supply feed and fencing for his livestock. To Bolton, this exchange is taxable bartering, and Patrick has never reported it on his federal returns.

Bolton brings the matter to his supervisors in Denver and Washington. At the Justice Department's request, a grand jury in Wyoming quickly returns an indictment. On a bitterly cold January afternoon, Patrick is arrested outside his cabin and set to stand trial in federal court in Casper, Wyoming. The odds are steep, since the law and the facts largely favor the government. What works in his favor is his attorney, Anita Boyle, a solo practitioner from a small town who will not retreat from a fight.