Sandy Walker works child abuse cases for the Los Angeles juvenile delinquent court as a defense attorney. Like her fellow attorneys, she has learned to distance herself from her clients, using the law as a shield to keep their crimes and their lives from touching her. Sandy fights a daily battle to keep her equilibrium in a madhouse of abuse and denial. But something or someone is trying to pry its way past the bottles of brandy, past the guilt and self-loathing, into her heart.

Could it be Manuel, her young Mexican lover, all hard muscle and carefree manner? Or...