Charity McLaughlin is a highly skilled trial lawyer, practicing law in Tacoma, Washington. She also has a new and exciting relationship with sheriff's detective Sean Robinson. Charity's friends have recently helped her survive serious mental illness and a harrowing attempt on her life. Now she simply hopes to live normally, with as little stress as possible. But this is not to be. When Sophia and Manuel Vega come to her with a claim involving Sophia's badly botched surgery, Charity is once again embroiled in intrigue. Sophia Vega had been horribly scarred by the negligence of a noted plastic surgeon, who had claimed he could repair the results of an earlier mastectomy and make her beautiful again. Instead, he left her with jagged scars across her chest, and skin which resembles a burn victim. Charity takes the case. But in doing so, she is unwittingly pulled into a deadly battle between Mexican and Honduran drug cartels, which are moving up the west coast into Washington State. This drug war is also being fought by her detective boyfriend, Sean. Charity does her best to help Sophia Vega in her claim against the doctor, while facts begin to unfold which make her wonder if one of the Vegas could be involved in the drug runnning operation. The final question becomes whether Charity and Sean will escape with their lives.