Following her success with The Cheater, Nancy Taylor Rosenberg returns to her most memorable character, Lily Forrester. Lily is a tough judge in Ventura County, California, who has overcome adversity and heartache to achieve a position of power from which she can help those who can't help themselves, as in the current case before her: the sensational murder trial of a woman who tortured and killed her beautiful two-year-old son. Lily is determined to see justice done, but she's thrown for a loop when she receives word that her own daughter, Shana, months away from graduating from Stanford Law School, is on the verge of dropping out.

Lily rushes north, and what she discovers causes her to fear for her daughter's mental state. She must get back to the trial and decides that she will take Shana to a facility where they can evaluate her and, if needed, give her some counseling or medication - which is when things go horribly awry. For the institution that Lily has chosen is far less interested in treating patients than it is in bilking the insurance companies out of extravagant fees... and they are less than scrupulous about patient's rights.

Discovering the awful truth, Lily will have to summon all her intelligence and street smarts to find a way to free Shana. She will have to work fast, however, for there is someone at the facility who seems to have his own agenda separate from the institution's. And Lily's daughter may be in danger of losing not only her sanity but her life.