Olinda Serna, a lawyer with Mandella, Harbet, Cain & Jensen, one of the largest law firms in the U.S., is a master at managing money and political talent. After many years in the political trenches, Serna knows the secrets of life, where the bodies are buried, and how deeply they are stacked. So when she dies suddenly in a roadside crash in the high desert of Southern California, powerful heads in Washington begin to spin as they worry about what will happen next and whether their secrets ultimately will be safe.

Defense attorney Paul Madriani is forced to step in and defend Alex Ives, a friend of his daughter, who has been accused of vehicular manslaughter in Serna’s death. Ives claims he had nothing to drink on the night in question, and remembers nothing between going to a party in Las Vegas and waking up in the hospital the next morning with bruises, a broken arm, and shackles on his leg.

Now the only way to save an innocent young man from wrongful imprisonment is for Madriani to uncover the corruption and dark deeds that surround Serna’s friends and find the real killer-before he or she can strike again.