Detective Emma Rules is plucked from obscurity by the New York City Police Commissioner to investigate the death of a prominent city councilman. She faces an impossible mission, quickly solve the crime with minimal staff, few resources and the Commissioner as the prime suspect. If she succeeds, she gains the support of the commissioner. If she fails, it'll make the NYPD look corrupt and plunge the city into turmoil. On top of that, her brother's wife and daughter seek her assistance, creating family frictions and throwing her life into turmoil when she has little time to deal with it. And after years of protecting herself emotionally, she's drawn into an unanticipated romance, which threatens to change her life as much as the case itself. Between these whirlwind events, she's buffeted by social and professional events, as the biggest case of her career threatens to unravel it.