Abrasive, ambitious young lawyer Sarah Hartly is on her way out and up. Out of the squalor of legal aid work in inner-city London and the web of fears left by her hard upbringing; up in the world to a prestigious practice in West Country Fersford. If she wonders why Francis Appleby appointed someone he obviously despises, she's too grateful to care. And if someone of this deal seems a little borederline - well, borders will blur when everyone and their businesses are connected. Sarah has a new comfortable lifestyl and a new lover, and she's not going down to the streets again. Until one death too many connects too closely with the building developments whose records Appleby handles so secretively. Then Sarah must call on all her street smarts - and even the terror of her past - to survive the well-oiled machinery of country club chincanery.