For Butch Karp, chief assistant district attorney for New York County, the nightmare begins when a shocking act of negligence results in the death of a newborn. Goaded by the media and the public's scream for blood, Karp's boss, D.A. Jack Keegan, orders the prosecution of the baby's fifteen-year-old Hispanic mother.

Butch's wife, Marlene Ciampi, is taking on an equally unspeakable tragedy following her recent return to law. With Butch and Marlene squaring off on opposite sides of an incendiary national debate, things couldn't get more tense...until an astonishing turn of events puts their daughter, Lucy, at the center of a horrifying crime. Drawn into a maelstrom of big-city politics and small-town values, Karp must struggle to salvage his self-respect, his career...even his life.