When Estrada is assigned to retry the homicide case against real estate developer Roberto Morales, accused of the brutal slashing murder of his colleague and lover Mariah Dodge, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joe Estrada doesn’t know whether to celebrate or mourn.  People v Morales is as high-profile and career-making a case as any prosecutor could dream of, but Morales is a hero to New York’s Puerto Rican community, so the case is potentially a keg of dynamite.  And retrials are always an uphill battle – the defense knows your strategy, witnesses are gone or forgetful.  Worse, Estrada can’t know if he was picked to retry Morales for his courtroom skills or –as Morales’s supporters claim – for his Latino-sounding name.

Estrada’s sweat, pain, and emotional investment lead him to a gut-wrenching possibility – the man he is trying so hard to convict may, in fact, be innocent.  Under increasing pressure to produce a conviction, his career and his very identity on the line, Estrada struggles toward the truth.  What he finds is… inadmissible evidence.