It starts with a phone call Mike Daley never expected to get, from District Attorney Prentice Marshall Gates III, San Francisco's chief law enforcement officer and front-runner candidate for California attorney general. Friends they're not, but Gates needs Daley now - badly. He's just been arrested. A couple of hours earlier he woke up in his hotel room and found the dead body of a young male prostitute in the bed. There's nothing in the mounting evidence to convince Daley and his partner - and ex-wife - Rosie of Gates' innocence. But even if he's lying, it's their job to defend him.