Summary

In Chapter 1, lawyer Jake Brigance assumed he would be working up another divorce when his secretary told him there was a couple to see him.

In Chapter 2, Gene and Kathy Roupp told Jake they were not potential clients. They had been to Costa Rica where they had become acquaintances with one of the people who worked at their hotel. One day the man asked to speak to them privately.

The man they knew as Jason said his name was really Mack Stafford and that he was from Clanton, Mississippi. Jake is surprised to learn Mack is alive.

In Chapter 3, three years earlier Mack had divorced his wife, Lisa, declared bankruptcy, and left his family. Mack was a small-town lawyer who barely kept his head above water. His wife was the daughter of a man who owned the only ready-mix plant in the...