In the eyes of the world, Dr. Lindsey McCall had everything: beauty, brains and a nomination for the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Dr. McCall was a woman to envy---until she is convicted of murdering her dying mother with the very experimental drugs that boosted her rise to fame. When reporter Kate Townsend learned about the murder conviction and imprisonment of the renowned doctor cardiologist, she was certain that this story would be the biggest she had ever pursued. But after her series of articles is awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Kate is haunted by the knowledge that her new-found fame has been purchased at too high a price; she is certain that McCall is not guilty.

Texas governor Greg Bell hires former homicide detective and criminal defense attorney Rich Jansen to fix the escalating problems at the Huntsville Prisons recently inflamed by a lawsuit against Lindsey McCall. When Jansen's skills quickly result in the resignation of the incompetent prison medical director, he realizes that this strange saga is just beginning.