A Texas Ranger, relegated to desk work due to past recklessness, petitions to regain custody of his five-year-old daughter, and his case is assigned to a family court judge who is as attractive as she is ambitious. When a masked gunman barges in during the custody hearing with his sights on the judge, the Ranger reacts instinctually and goes after him. But authorities apprehend the wrong man, and the real gunman remains unknown, at large, and a threat....

While in New York, Judge Deborah Knott has been asked to deliver a package to Lt. Sigrid Harald of the NYPD. Sigrid offers to swing by the apartment with her husband to pick up the box, but when they reach the apartment, they discover that the box is missing and the doorman has been murdered.

"As Judge Deborah Knott presides over a case involving a barroom brawl, it becomes clear that deep resentments over race, class, and illegal immigration are simmering just below the surface in the North Carolina countryside"--Provided by publisher.

When an inflatable carnival ride is destroyed, the first in a series of strange events surrounding a traveling carnival, judge Deborah Knott wonders about a carny's charm bracelet and her connection to Deborah's own family.

Family court judge Olivia Lockhart becomes front page news when she refuses to grant a divorce to a naval officer and his wife after the death of their baby, and discovers the lives of her family and friends to be increasingly complex.

When a local commissioner is murdered in the wake of struggles between housing developers and farmers in the North Carolina countryside, judge Deborah Knott and her husband find themselves in the middle of an increasingly violent dispute.