Erin McCabe has been referred the biggest case of her career. Four months ago, William E. Townsend Jr, son of aNew Jersey State Senator, was found fatally stabbed in a rundown motel near Atlantic City. Sharise Barnes, a nineteenyear-old transgender sex worker, is in custody, and given the evidence, there seems little doubt of a guilty verdict.As a trans woman herself, Erin knows that defending Sharise will blow her own private life wide open and doubtlessdeepen her estrangement from her family. Yet she feels uniquely qualified to help Sharise and duty-bound to protecther from the possibility of a death sentence. Because Sharise admits she killed the senator's son - in self-defense.As Erin works with her law partner, former FBI agent Duane Swisher, to build a case, Senator Townsend begins usingthe full force of his prestige and connections to publicly discredit everyone involved in defending Sharise. And behindthe scenes, his tactics are even more dangerous. For his son had secrets that could destroy his own politicalaspirations - secrets worth killing for...