The suicide of a gay man leads a seasoned reporter to investigate the unsavory side of Washington politics where murder and crimes abound. Tom Clark, a reporter with the White House press corps, is on assignment when he learns that his childhood friend, Simon Neville, has committed suicide aboard an Amtrak train. When three FBI agents inform Clark that he, along with three others, is the recipient of a suspicious package delivered to his office, he is unexpectedly propelled into a media frenzy that forces the government to shut down the capital. Anxious for a good story, Clark's editor assigns him to investigate Neville's suicide. It is not long before Clark learns that Neville was harboring a secret of monumental proportions. A victim of sexual harassment, Neville's case in federal court had just been denied by Richard Ignatius, a conservative judge who is hiding his own unsavory secrets. As soon as Clark reads the incriminating contents of Neville's diary, he is led straight to a rightwing religious organization in Washington-just as a series of seemingly related murders occur with one common thread: Judge Ignatius. In this action-packed thriller, Clark is unwittingly caught in a web of corruption, deceit, and desperation as he attempts to take down powerful culprits who want to teach him one important lesson-that life can change in an instant.