Six months ago, Harry Bosch left the LAPD before they could fire him and then hired the unconventional defense attorney Mickey Haller to sue the department for pushing him out. Although it wasn't the way he had hoped to leave, Harry must admit that there are advantages to no longer being in the business. Until Mickey asks him to help with one of his cases, and suddenly Harry is back where he belongs, right in the middle of a particularly puzzling murder case. The difference this time is that Harry is working for the defense and trying to prevent the defendant, Da'Quan Foster, from being convicted. Not only does the prosecution seem to have a watertight case, but after he has, as his former colleagues would put it, "switched to the dark side," there is a risk that Harry will betray the principles he has lived by throughout his entire career.