Jack Patterson returns to Little Rock at the request of his boyhood friend Sam Pagano, but when Jack arrives, he's abducted and taken to a remote swamp where he's beaten and lynched-by men set on revenge. Clovis Jones, his friend and bodyguard, finds Jack near death and gets him to a hospital. As Jack recovers, he learns Sam's college sweetheart, Jana Hall, is now a doctor who established and ran Arkansas's health clinics for the poor, including one in Little Rock's East End. Jana's efforts stepped on the toes of some-powerful people, including someone who wants her clinics shut down, her medical practice ended, and for her to spend the rest of her life in jail. Meanwhile, someone has killed the men who tried to lynch Jack, and Jack is the prime suspect in the murders. To make matters worse, Jack must defend Jana without the aid of his trusted assistant, Maggie, and his usual co-counsel, Micki Lawrence. Jack faces an unethical special prosecutor, a judge on the take, and the shadowy po
