By appearances Peter Scattergood leads a privileged life: a post as Assistant District Attorney, a loving wife, and a townhouse in Philadelphia's exclusive Society Hill. Assigned to an explosive homicide case - the murder of the mayor's nephew and the young man's beautiful mistress - the power and prestige he's always craved seem within his grasp. But soon the illusion of success shatters. His wife walks out. The double-murder case casts a shadow of doubt on his most trusted peers. And, in a moment of weakness, Peter enters into an affair with a woman whose greatest skill is arousing suspicion. With everything spinning out of control, Peter is driven by rage into the blackest depths of corruption and perversity following a twisted obsession for justice that will force him to break the law he has sworn to uphold: to punish the innocent as well as the guilty.