Life is complicated. No one needed to tell Hugh and Ellen Kerr that the addition of a baby to their family would be simple. Yet, neither could have anticipated the complications. Asking Jack to babysit was the first problem, immeasurably complicated when they lose the services of Mary Wade after Hugh and Lieutenant Wade get into a bitter argument over the way a confession was obtained from an under-aged boy. Distraught over the idea of losing Ellen as his legal assistant and confronted with his belief no child should be prosecuted as an adult, Hugh takes on the case of the youthful murder suspect. This places him at odds with those who support the idea that a confession is tantamount to guilt, and any lawyer defending a confessed murderer only serves to pervert justice. Discovering himself faced with the additional burden of acknowledging the disparity of legal services provided to those who could afford the best representation and those depending on overworked court-appointed lawyers, Hugh questions whether he would better serve justice by abandoning his lucrative law practice and becoming a storefront attorney for the poor and destitute. His route of self-discovery takes him in unforeseen directions and as he struggles to cope with the loss of his adopted family in Jack Merrick and the Wades, he faces an uphill battle to defend his client from a conviction that would send him to adult prison for the rest of his life.