Ruby Bozarth, a newcomer to Rosedale, Mississippi, is also fresh to the Mississippi Bar and she faces an impossible task defending a college football star accused of murder.
The victim is a young woman from one of the town's oldest families, and Rosedale's upper crust are howling for blood.
Then news breaks of a second murder, and lurid, intertwining investigations unfold.
Ruby discovers that no one in Rosedale can be trusted, especially the twelve men and women on the jury.