Boston star-prosecutor-turned-corporate-attorney Jack Marino has risen fast and far from his upbringing in the Mystic housing projects. But after he's savagely beaten in retaliation for his work as head of the District Attorney's Urban Gang Unit, he's fired because his powerful boss is running for governor and fears the beating may have shaken Jack's formidable confidence.

Jack lands a plush suite at his father-in-law's mega law firm, making big money practicing corporate law. Although he seemingly has everything—money, privilege, and an heiress for a wife, what he doesn't have is his own self-respect.

When he is given a chance to get back into criminal law—this time as defense counsel in a capital murder case—he finally feels alive again. But to save his client from death row, he'll face a criminal network far more organized and powerful than he could have imagined.

The case will take Jack back to the projects he thought he'd escaped. He'll risk personal and professional ruin, and ultimately his very life, to fight the corrupt forces determined to see his client go down—forces that may have already given absolute immunity to the real killer.