IAN ELKINS IS A STRAIGHTSHOOTER, a genuinely honest man--something of a rarity in the profession of law. Married and on the verge of fatherhood, he's acquired a reputation, by his own admission, as a "hot-shot estateslawyer" after uncovering a massive fraud in a major case. On the strength of that success, other estates come his way, including one worth twenty million dollars. He's thrilled by the very real prospect of hefty fees. But he soon finds himself lassoed to a cheapskate client who may be engaged in fraud, her two uncles whom he's convinced certainly are, and the Catholic Church, which is hoping as well for a sizeable chunk of the estate. Day by day--defending against legal maneuvers from various quarters, aided only by his paralegal wife, his happily overweight boss, and a few old friends--Ian discovers that the time has come for him to depend less on anybody else than he does on himself. This realization, that being a good guy doesn't mean you have to be a pushover, marks a fundamental change in Ian's view of himself. But will it be enough to sidestep a client's treachery and the schemes of all the others players in the case who are hungry to seize its vast assets?