Amid the flash and din of Boston's raucous Chinese New Year's celebration, an elderly man is shot while watching the parade from his window. Anthony Bradley, the son of an African-American judge, is standing across the street at the time and is immediately arrested for the crime. Michael Knight, a young lawyer who's going places, is surprised when Judge Bradley asks him to defend his son in such a high profile and politically delicate case. Luckily, Knight finds powerful support from Lex Devlin, a senior partner at his firm. Once the foremost criminal defense attorney in Boston, Devlin has mysteriously withdrawn from defense work in recent years. As Knight and Devlin investigate and prepare their client's defense, Knight is forced to confront the murky allegations that eclipsed his mentor's career, and enter into the shadow world of gangland Chinatown. From the halls of Harvard to the streets of Chinatown, Knight doggedly pursues an investigation that involves drugs, prostitution, human trafficking, and a corruption scandal that could bring down the most powerful people in Boston.