"The only good lawyer is a dead lawyer." And a dead lawyer is exactly what John Francis Cuddy faces - a very ex-member of the bar named Woodrow Wilson Gant. Gant's shooting is immediately blamed on Allan Spaeth - a divorced husband whose wife Gant had seduced. Spaeth is a bigot, a coward, a liar, and a wife-beater - altogether one of the most despicable characters Cuddy's ever come across.
But Cuddy's gut is telling him Spaeth didn't kill Gant. He decides to take Spaeth's case - a choice that puts him at odds with almost the entire Boston police department, as well as his girlfriend, attorney Nancy Meagher - who turns out to have some history of her own with Gant...
Cuddy's on his own -- in more ways than one -- as he takes on the most personally agonizing case of his career...
