Charles Bettencourt is a brilliant physicist who has a consulting contract with the CIA. He is poisoned in an assassination attempt. He survives but with severe disabilities. He hires Turner Largeant to find out who tried to kill him seeking monetary retribution. Largeant reluctantly accepts the improbable case knowing he will have to connect a terrorist organization responsible.
Bettencourt has developed state of the art word-activated eavesdropping spyware planted in the highest military offices Iran and Syria. Meanwhile, the government at the behest of the current administration, creates a secret group headed by a high-level CIA deputy to frustrate at any cost Bettencourt's efforts. The purported reason is to protect national security and keep knowledge of a Bettencourt's means and methods of gathering intelligence from Iran and Syria secret. However, Largeant discovers a more sinister reason.
Bridget, Largeant's first year associate, while working with Bettencourt, is pursued by a law school professor who befriended Bridget while in law school. The professor is Iranian and attempts to persuade Bridget to pass classified intelligence from Bettencourt's files. Bridget, who discovered she was adopted from German parents, has mixed loyalties after learning her biological father was most likely killed by the CIA.
Patrick McInerney is a clandestine CIA operative suddenly recalled back to Langley from Ukraine following an operation gone sour. He is assigned to the secret group and told to use any means necessary to ensure Bettencourt's lawsuit never sees the light of day.
Nonetheless, using guile, skill, and plain determination dodging legal pitfalls and potentially deadly encounters, Turner and Bridget bring a federal lawsuit. The drama unfolds thereafter in a dramatic courtroom scene with unexpected twists, and an unlikely result, one Perry Mason would be proud.
