The Ku Klux Klan arrives in Astoria, Oregon, in 1922, dividing families and tearing apart this once-peaceful community. Centered around Emma Sewell, a restless 17 year-old who craves a more exciting life, and her father, Edward, a tyrannical but well-intentioned businessman who heads the local Klan, Invisible Empire follows the explosive conflicts that occur when people clinging to the past fight against a fast-changing world.

Based on real events that reflect our own deeply divided times, this gripping historical novel pits the resurgent Klan against a crooked and incompetent city government, a controlling father against an ambitious daughter, and idealistic reformers of various stripe against opportunistic bigots and cynical manipulators. What results is an increasingly ugly battle as an anxious population confronts forces beyond its control in a city riddled with vice, corruption, hatred, and anxiety.