Jock Boucher, Cajun born and raised on the Louisiana bayou, has overcome modest beginnings to assume one of the most powerful positions in the land: U.S. District Judge of the Eastern District of Louisiana. 

One of his first cases on the bench involves Bob Palmetto, a scientist just apprehended, who has been hiding from authorities for twenty years. The fugitive claims that another judge accepted bribes and helped an energy company steal his intellectual property: a way to use energy from below the subsea bed that could end our dependence on oil. Palmetto fears that the company’s greed and carelessness could cause an ecological disaster.

Boucher verifies the corruption claims and, with the help of Detective Fitch of the New Orleans Police Department, seeks justice against the company and its powerful founder John Perry. Following a trail of cryptic clues from one end of the city to the other, Boucher is pushed to the limits only to find himself in the line of fire—and too far from the law to ever return.