Tavang Sing, the son of a CIA mercenary and a woman who lived in the Hmong village of Ban Xon in Laos, was born after his father was captured by the Pathet Lao in that country''s civil war in the 1960''s. After his birth his mother took him to Chicago, where as a teenager he became involved with a street gang. But, with the help of a stranger, who turns out to be his long lost father, Tavang left the gang. He then graduated from high school and Northwestern University, and joined the Peace Corps in Laos. Upon his return, he graduated from the University of Chicago School of Law. He then became a lawyer, and eventually a politician.

After the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, Tavang joined the military to exact revenge on Osama bin Laden, one of the masterminds of 9/11.