Lee White is a criminal defense lawyer practicing on Long Island. Into her life drifts Norman Torkelson, a career con man charged with strangling to death his latest mark. At first the case seems routine, the evidence overwhelming. Norman - manly, magnetic, and morally reprehensible - is a man who crisscrosses America working his cruel marriage scam: love 'em, liquidate their assets, leave 'em. Clearly, he murdered Bobette Frisch, his latest patsy.

But just as Lee is resigning herself to the inevitable "Guilty!" verdict, she begins to have doubts. What, after all, was Norman's motive for killing? Why not do what he had done for the last 20 years: run, leaving behind a broke and broken-hearted victim? Lee starts to wonder if her client is not merely not guilty, but covering for the real killer - and, in doing so, performing the first selfless act of his life.