Dixon Donnelly is a Minneapolis business lawyer with a struggling practice and an unfulfilling love life. He finds himself drawn into a bizarre shooting incident in a small town in northern Minnesota. His client, Duke MacKenzie, is being sued for shooting a burglar in Duke's house. The bigger problem is that Duke was so distraught that he took his own life before telling his story to anyone. While Dixon originally believes he is handling a simple insurance dispute regarding the injury suffered by the burglar, the evidence soon points to something far more nefarious. Dixon then finds himself drawn into the unfamiliar world of criminal law and small-town America. Along the way, he learns important lessons about himself and about truth, love, and justice.