Arthur Kirkland, an idealistic defense attorney in Baltimore, cares about his clients and visits his aging grandfather, who put him through law school, every week. Things aren't going well for Arthur: two of his clients are increasingly desperate, neither should be in prison, his partner is behaving bizarrely, he's begun an affair with an attorney who's on the bar's disciplinary committee, his favorite judge may have a death wish, and then, the judge he dislikes most, a by-the-book martinet, demands that Arthur defend him when he's accused of a brutal assault on a young woman. Is there any way to expose real corruption and find justice for all?