Widowed for three years, judge Monica Barrett is surprised to learn that she is on the initial long list of twenty under consideration to fill the current Supreme Court vacancy. Her confidantes in the know believe that although she is not as high profile as some of the other nineteen, she has a good shot of the appointment because she is seen as being fair, knowledgeable and non-partisan, as witnessed by the support she receives from opposition Senator Garland Wolf. But most importantly, she doesn't have any skeletons in her closet, at least to that she will admit or of which people know. While on vacation alone in San Francisco, she meets Irish writer Jack Sullivan, who begins to woo her. Being naturally cautious but a good judge of character, she does go out to dinner and have drinks with him, but she does not divulge her real name or her real job. After their encounter, she learns that Jack is not who he appears on the surface as he begins to stalk her with incriminating evidence of their encounter. He also seemingly knows who she really is and how to contact her. She does not know exactly what he wants, but she, as a judge, has a conundrum in how to deal with him, who she would really like just to go away. If she fulfills the legal side of coin, which her morality in general would tell her to do, she could very well jeopardize her Supreme Court nomination, which she begins to believe is no coincidence. That nomination may be jeopardized regardless if Jack decides to divulge intimate details of their encounter.