Turow continues his exploration of how the law affects people's lives in his presentation of a potentially scandalous situation at the successful law firm of Gage and Griswell. Partner in the firm and former policeman McCormack "Mack" Malloy is asked to investigate the mysterious disappearance of another of the firm's partners, Bert Kamin, along with 5.6 million dollars from a client's account. Like other Turow protagonists, Mack is forced to face his own failings — as a husband and father, as a policeman, as a lawyer, and as a human being. Recognizing his own shortcomings, Mack is further compelled to view the corruption in the lives of those around him and in the life of the firm itself. Everyone is out to protect his/her own reputation.

Things appear to be as Mack's mother told him when he was a boy, "Everybody's a bit of a thief...