In 1964 Coop Lindsay has a thriving law practice in Lankston, Mississippi. When an African American maid who once worked for Coop’s family asks him to defend her grandson, Martin Jennings, on charges of rape and murder, the attorney takes the case. It’s a decision that divides the town, but Coop devotedly digs for facts, faces attempts on his life, fights against all odds … and wins. A few weeks later the boy disappears and Coop Lindsay is murdered.
Almost 50 years later, Coop’s grandson, Clark, returns to Lankston and to the old family home. Opening his own law practice, his first case is just as controversial as the one that ended his grandfather’s life. This time the victim is African American and the suspect is white. The tables have turned, but the racial tension is just as high. Clark digs for evidence with the tenacity characteristic of his family. But even he doesn’t know that this crime will reveal clues to the 1964 Jennings case and may even uncover his grandfather’s killer as well—if only Coop can stay alive long enough to prove it.