It's been a long time since Boston criminal defence attorney David Cavanaugh had heard Senator Chris Kincaid speak of Marilyn Maloney; hers is a name from their childhood, from the life David left behind in New Jersey.
But Marilyn is missing, and Chris pleads with David to come home to help him locate the woman he once loved.
Then a battered body is hauled from the Passaic River, and when Chris is charged with Marilyn's murder, David must face the harrowing responsibility of defending one childhood friend accused of killing another.
Devastating family secrets plague David as he races toward a trial which looks impossible to win. Worse still, he discovers that proving Chris's innocence is linked to an unthinkable mistake, made many years before...