Wendall Rohr and a legal team have filed suit on behalf of plaintiff Celeste Wood, whose husband died from smoking cigarettes. The trial is to be held in Biloxi, Mississippi, a state thought to have favorable tort laws and sympathetic juries. The defendant is a tobacco company, Pynex, which is part of the 'Big Four.' Durwood Cable is lead lawyer for the defense and assigns case management to Rankin Fitch, a ruthless lawyer and jury consultant who has helped to "win" cases like this.
Even before the jury has been sworn in, one of them, Nicholas Easter, has begun to quietly connive behind the scenes, in concert with a mysterious woman known only as Marlee.
Fitch has placed a camera in the courtroom, feeding to his office nearby so that the trial can be observed. As the case continues, Fitch is approached by Marlee with a proposal to 'buy' the verdict. Fitch attempts to gather information on Marlee, and eventually concedes to give her $10 million in exchange for a defense verdict.
After the money has been sent, however, it is revealed that Marlee and Nicholas have in fact been playing Fitch all along; Marlee's parents died from lung cancer, caused by cigarettes.
Easter becomes jury foreman and convinces them to find for the plaintiff and make a large monetary award - $2 million dollars for compensatory damages, and $400 million for punitive measures. The defense lawyers and their employers are devastated.
Whilst Easter and Marlee are now rich and satisfied that they served justice, Fitch realizes that his reputation is gone and that the tobacco companies, once undefeatable, are now vulnerable to lawsuits. Marlee plays the stock market with Fitch's money after the trial, and shows up one day to give him his money back, claiming she was only borrowing it, and that she is above stealing.
The book closes with Marlee warning Fitch that she and Nicholas will always be watching.
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