In Toronto's summer heatwave of 1980, a suave Quebecois is arrested for murder after a mysterious mob hit above a bowling alley leaves three men dead. Meanwhile, a serial strangler and rapist stalks the city's night streets. In a well-publicized murder trial in connection with the latest victim of the "Midnight Strangler," Carrington Barr gets her client off - and then discovers she is alone in believing in his innocence. This courtroom win leads to her next big case: the defence of the charismatic Quebecois, Andre Cristal. Inside the offices of Robinovitch, Barr, Barr, Tchobanian, the committed lawyers fight their own battles while working for justice in the courtroom amidst wily prosecutors and wilful judges. And to add to various other dramas, the threat to Carrie and Ted's marriage - in the form of a wealthy and attractive female client - creates a tug of war of loyalties within the firm. As the summer progresses, Leon Robinovitch is saddled with the defence of an anti-Semitic peddler of hate literature; Chuck Tchobanian represents a pornography salesman, which leads to friction at home; and Carrie finds herself in uneasy proximity to the world of a gangland drug ring, and increasingly, dangerously, vulnerable to her new client's charms.