The novel follows Mick Haller, a criminal defense attorney from Lincoln. He is a charismatic and well-spoken attorney who works on lowering the sentences of the convicted criminals. One day, he is approached by a wealthy man called Louis Roulet, who is accused with the crime of rape. An interesting fact is revealed to Mick about the case. Namely, his wife is the one who is prosecuting him for this crime.
Roulet states that he is a target of a scheme in pursuit of his wealth. He tells the story of what happened. A sex worker lured him into her apartment where he was attacked and blacked out, only to wake up with the accusation of the same woman that he raped her, with two men present as witnesses to her accusation. But, there is evidence that Roulet might be lying. He has a knife with him when the incident happened and knew about the woman’s profession.
Mick becomes suspicious of his client, and even notices similarities with another case, where a man named Jesus Menendez was sent to prison for a similar crime. As his police colleague starts to investigate, Mick realizes that his client might have been the one guilty of that crime as well, and he got away with it. All is confirmed when Roulet confesses to both of the crimes, but as his attorney, Mick is forced to remain silent and continue to defend him in the case.
A police officer investigating Roulet behind the scenes ends up murdered, and the murder weapon is Mick’s gun. Mick realizes that he’s being framed and threatened by his client, so he sets up a plan to secretly expose him during the trial by bribing a witness to expose Roulet as a murderer.
As he’s being arrested for the both cases of rape, Roulet threatens Mick with his ex-wife and child. Unbeknownst to Mick, detectives are using him as bait to keep Roulet in prison. As he’s going towards his car, Mick is approached and shot by Roulet’s mother, who killed the officer secretly investigating the Menendez case as well. Mick kills her in self-defense.
Roulet is charged with rape and murder and sentenced to prison, while Jesus Menendez is finally released. Mick recovers and pledges to fight for those like Jesus Menendez.
