It is five years before the millennium and Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Jordan La Fontaine is in line to be the next Chief of the Homicide Division Bureau. But Jordan's world turns upside down when her teenage son is accused of a double homicide and her competition for the post, Jerrod Wresler, is assigned to prosecute the case. She enlists the services of Simon McNeil, her late husband's law partner, to defend him.

At the same time, Jordan is preparing to try a decorated Portland police detective, Graham Turner, accused of viciously murdering his ex-wife. Causing Jordan further grief is Turner's hardnosed partner, Detective Harry Coleman, who will stop at nothing to prove his innocence.

As Jordan moves back and forth between the two tough cases and deals with issues in her personal life, she must use all her resources to clear her son's name and convict a cop of murder.