When a group of young Native Americans launches a series of protests against climate change and its effects on the waters and woods of Maine, veteran FBI agent Ryan Tapia is assigned to monitor the movement. The protestors, who become determined to split away from American society, are led by "Peeled Paul" Soco, a Malpense hermit who played a key role in one of Tapia's previous investigations. When the marchers begin making camps on the lawns of luxurious summer mansions along the Maine coast, they win national media attention—and the wrath of a reactionary president.

Tapia soon finds himself torn. He wants to do right by Soco and the protestors, but his bosses at the Bureau are eager to please the president. Growing increasingly sympathetic to the protestors and their cause, he tells them about a possible refuge—a secret CIA base hidden away in the depths of the Maine woods. Enraged, the White House sends a US Army unit to track down the protestors on their stealth march through the evergreen forests. Meanwhile, Tapia's bosses, vexed and embarrassed, fire him and threaten arrest. Undaunted, Tapia snowmobiles through the wilderness on a wintry night to warn the Indian protestors of the impending attack. Building to a dizzying climax, We Can't Save You establishes Ryan Tapia as one of the most compelling and nuanced investigators in crime fiction.