When Wade McNabb, publisher of the Georgetown Pilot, exposes high-level political corruption surrounding a chemical plant on the South Carolina coast, a powerful senator, steeped in the ancient code of the state's insider politics, threatens to bring down McNabb and his newspaper. Wade turns for help to Kate Stewart, a young lawyer who has left a large law firm for a fresh start on her own in Georgetown. These two fiercely independent souls form a wary alliance for the legal battle that follows. It's a fight that shows them the power of connections - good and bad - to change their lives forever.