Nick Slovak is put in charge of a hot immigration investigation when he learns that his partner, immigration officer Walter Martin, is dead and the killer has escaped. Nick's investigation turns up a trail of unsavoury evidence: organized crime, a billion dollar smuggling operation, and government corruption at the highest levels. As his world is turned upside down, he is forced to confront the painful truth about Grace Wang-Weinstein, the woman he loves.

Grace, a brilliant young immigration judge, finds herself a suspect in the murder investigation. At the same time, she is handed the biggest case of her career, and pitched into a web of intrigue. Caught between her political masters, the police and the cold-eyed killers of an immigration officer, she must confront the past in order to unravel the truth - that one of her friends is not what he seems to be.