As a child, Kate Ashby was rescued from the horrific aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. She was adopted and brought up in Britain by Eve Ashby, a world-class international lawyer. Kate has long struggled to escape the shadow of her past, but is now returning to work as a legal investigator in the same chambers as Eve, under leading international lawyer Michael Ennis. Kate and Eve's relationship is strained to breaking point when a controversial militia leader, who had once fought to stop the genocide, is captured in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Eve takes on his prosecution at the International Criminal Court.

Eve's case prosecuting Simon Nyamoya begins at the International Criminal Court, but a shocking incident changes everything. To try and uncover the truth behind these events, Michael Ennis launches a new case and turns to Kate for help. They will be defending Alice Munezero, a Rwandan government official and an old friend of Michael and Eve's. Alice stands accused of a historic war crime - the murder of a French priest in Rwanda in 1994.

Kate and Michael finish their work on Alice's case in France but are shocked when an indicted Rwandan and Congolese war criminal, Patrice Ganimana, implicated in the Genocide, arrives in the UK. Excited by the chance to prosecute him, Michael is unsettled to learn that an old rival is handling his defence. Meanwhile this new arrival prompts Alice Munezero to delay her own return to Rwanda. As difficulties multiply for an extradition of Ganimana to the International Criminal Court, Kate and Michael's relationship begins to fray.

In Rwanda, Alice Munezero languishes in custody. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kate fights against hostile locals as well as international forces to prove the truth of her personal history. Meanwhile in London, Michael delves into a deep political and financial conspiracy. Can he expose this in time, while Kate fights for her very life in an explosive climax?