A psychologist and an electrical worker have been buddies since childhood. Billy, the electrician, has a dream to be a licensed contractor, but, in what looks to be a brawl, his opponent is killed. Did he strike the deadly blow? The shrink's marriage is in trouble and he meets a single mother, Hannah, as he agonizes over being faithful to his wife of a dozen years, or pursuing his yearning for a vital new love. His wife's cousin from Nebraska is a fundamentalist who sees Jack Crossly as the enemy, and tries to catch him in the act of betrayal. Was he a third party who struck the deadly blow in Billy's fight? Billy's young girlfriend recently dumped a UCLA graduate student-who is bitter at Billy. Could he have killed the man in the brawl? Hannah's ten-year-old daughter becomes a pawn in this deadly game of chess. It takes Detective Hartunian, working with Jack, to track down the culprit(s).