Jack Hammond is a man haunted by the sins of his past. Once a member of a white-shoe law firm, he lost his once-promising career because of a transgression with a beautiful female client. Now he works out of a seedy office in downtown Atlanta. The only income he can count on is as the court-appointed attorney to the dregs of the court system. When his friend-a former addict and computer whiz who'd turned his life around-is found dead in his apartment with a syringe stuck in his arm, Jack knows there's something very wrong. In his attempt to get to the bottom of Doug's murder, Jack is drawn into the spellbinding world of a gorgeous black opera singer with whom Doug had been secretly in love.