After a successful career as a New York attorney, retired Martha Patterson stays busy doing freelance legal research and providing pro bono advice to the needy. It is a life that is proving both fascinating...and dangerous.

Her closest friend, Hannah Good, is the victim of a break-in. Hannah survives a blow to the head, but her assistant is not so lucky. In addition, Hannah's celebrated new maquette, a small-scale model of a large piece of artwork, is savagely destroyed.

While immediate suspicion falls upon another sculptor whose violent, emotional nature lends itself to a clear motive, Martha puts her legal mind to work, seeing the fine print in a crime that leads far from the murder scene to the tragic past of a young woman and the dark places of love, loss, and revenge.