"Charismatic trial lawyer Jack Stanton begins his career as a public defender in the Washington, D.C., "Agency." His dogged research and painstaking client preparation win him some very tough cases against the District's corps of prosecuting attorneys.".

"He believes with all his heart that indigent clients have a right to the best legal defense possible. And he represents the least defendable: the chronic sex offender accused of rape at gun-point, the African-American boy accused of killing a white neighbor. He gets them off. He has "the gift." Everybody recognizes it.".

"Ultimately, however, Jack pays for his reputation with his integrity. By the time he decides to leave the Agency to establish his own private law practice, his line between truth and manipulated fact has thinned to almost nothing. Jack succeeds brilliantly at his specialty - medical malpractice - and enjoys every luxury money can buy. Until the day he crosses that thin line and lies under oath.".

"He bolts and runs, taking refuge in a secluded house on the Chesapeake Bay, where he encounters a young woman with the kind of idealistic passions he's lost. Her plight leads Jack to act one more time on behalf of an underdog and to regain - at least in his own eyes - his old idealism and honor."--BOOK JACKET.