Scrupulous San Francisco defense attorney Kali O'Brien knows how to play the odds in a system where reality can be shaded. Despite apassion for justice that doesn't allow for compromise, her newest case is casting doubt on the one principle she cherished most: the absolute dead certainty that her client is telling the truth. Grady Barrett, a wealthy computer magnate married to Kali's best friend, has been arraigned in the rape of Deirdre Nicholas. Even if the sex was consensual, that doesn't acquit him, in Kali's eyes, of an indiscretion that has shattered his marriage, and further eroded his dubious reputation as a man of principle. Especially in the shadow of Deirdre's vivid, emotional, and thoroughly convincing deposition--damning testimony that Barrett maintains is a clever and manipulative web of lies spun to trap him. Despite his pleas of innocence, Kali's instincts tell her that Barrett may be as guilty as sin. Then Deirdre plunges to her death from a second-story balcony. A tragic accident? Or cold-blooded murder? Now, bound to a client she is afraid to trust, Kali finds herself straddling the razor-sharp line between crime and punishment. It isn't long before she finds her own life in jeopardy as a veil of lies is lifted, and the pasts of everyone from victim to victimizer, from illicit lover to faithless friend, unfold with their own provocative surprises.