The Office of the Public Defender is not known as a training ground for bright young litigators. Clay Carter has been there too long, and, like most of his colleagues, dreams of a better job in a real firm. When he reluctantly takes the case of a young man charged with a random street killing, he assumes it is just another of the many senseless murders that hit Washington D.C. every week.
But as he digs deeper into his client's background, Clay stumbles upon a conspiracy too horrible to believe. A pharmaceutical giant has been secretly and illegally testing a new drug on addicts - one that helps stop addiction, but which drives them to random acts of violence.
Overnight, aided by a mysterious whistleblower with an agenda of his own, Clay becomes the new 'king of torts', a celebrity among lawyers and a national media figure.
But as the financial stakes rise and rise, so does the danger...