In 1971, the hijacker, identified as "D.B. Cooper", jumps from an airliner by using the rear exit. He jumps on a clear day, parachuting into a forest in Washington State. The man is later identified as Jim Meade, an ex-Army man with big dreams. Meade escapes the manhunt using a Willys MB he had previously hidden in the forest and concealing the money in the carcass of a deer. He eventually meets up with his estranged wife Hannah, who operates a river rafting company. Meanwhile, Meade is being hunted by Bill Gruen, an insurance investigator who was Meade's sergeant in the Army, and Meade's Army buddy, Remson, who remembered Meade talking about hijacking an aircraft.