Anger and resentment follow Otis Washington out of prison after spending eighteen years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Two days later the judge that sentenced him is found shot to death on his party barge on the Blackwater Bay. Was it a revenge murder? Lieutenant Nick Melino of the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office, believes Otis was framed and pledges to help clear his name. A web of deception reveals several other suspects have their own reason to kill the judge, including an ambitious State Attorney, a low-life twin brother, and a Ponzi schemer. Melino, determined to bring justice, follows the clues and his own intuition to unravel a drug trail, a case of mistaken identity, and a fraudulent investment company that leads to the acquittal of a man who should never have been accused in the first place.