A long shadow looms above the wife of filmmaker Carlton Markham. Then a hand clamps over her mouth, and a blade sinks into her back. Blood splatters on the film reel case beside her, and a young life is cut short. Lawyer Matthew Hope gets a call from Markham, who's been arrested for his wife's murder, but he says he didn't do it. Witnesses fly forward to proclaim his guilt, but Markham's not giving up on his innocence that easily. And when Hope digs deeper into the victim's business—from heavy financial backers to sleazy egomaniacs—he finds she may not have been the perfect lady that she seemed. Now Matthew needs to infiltrate the seedy side of the film industry to find a missing reel and solve the murder.