When two men are murdered one muggy September night in a New Orleans housing project, an eye witness identifies only one suspect, Louis Bishop, a homeless sixteen-year-old. Louis is arrested the next day and thrown into Orleans Parish Prison. Emma Thornton, a law professor and director of the Homeless Law Clinic at St. Stanislaus Law School, agrees to represent him.
When they take on the case, Emma and her students discover a tangle of corruption, intrigue, and more violence than they would have thought possible, even in New Orleans. They uncover secrets about the night of the murders, and illegal dealings in the city, and within Louis's family. As the case progresses, Emma and her family are thrown into a series of life-threating situations. But, in the end, Emma gains Louis's trust, which allows him to reveal his last, and most vital secret.
