Spenser is hired by a theatre producer to help prove her innocence in a murder charge when even her lawyer believes her to be guilty. Meanwhile, the man Hawk is hired to protect is murdered, in what may be related cases.

Spenser is hired to protect a 14 year old boy after he witnesses a murder in the woods by a one eyed man who the police can't identify.

When the daughter of a Navy captain is murdered, suspicion falls on the (black) lieutenant who had been having an affair with her. McAllister, an honorable attorney and an old friend of Hawk's comes to defend him.