Emma Victor is short of cash. Very short of cash. It is time to get a bigger, more major assignment. The kind that pays big time. The kind that involves violence.

That assignment comes when Victor's boss, lawyer Willie Rossini, is called on to help a blackmail victim who has managed to shoot a video of Rossini's client in an evening of fierce passion. Just how dirty are they prepared to play? And can Victor put a stop to them before the whole political climate of San Francisco is affected?