Hot-shot, high-stakes, New York City attorney Patty Hewes hires a new associate, the bright, ambitious, but somewhat naive Ellen Parsons, to help her as she tries to ruin billionaire Arthur Frobisher. Hewes represents a group of employees who are suing Frobisher in a class-action suit after he sold his company, leaving the employees financially devastated. Ellen is unaware that her best friend, Katie Connor, and the younger sister of her fiancé David, is working for Frobisher who is financing her new restaurant opening. Flashing forward eight weeks in the future: a man is found murdered, and Ellen, wandering the streets covered in blood, becomes the prime suspect.

As a bomb threat puts Patty and her family on edge, Ellen's loyalty to the firm is tested when she must choose between delivering a brief to an important judge and attending her own engagement party.