After his wife leaves him Nick O'Hara, a part-Irish, part-Italian New York policeman turns to drinking and gambling. To pay debts he resorts to dealing in drugs, is caught and given a choice, jail or become an undercover agent against his grandfather, a Mafia don. By the author of Law and Order.

Kitty Keeler--mother of two, estranged wife, involved in close friendships with men in cocktail lounges and casinos--is the primary suspect when her two small sons are found murdered. The media makes her an overnight celebrity and a public scandal. One cop gradually comes to doubt the evidence and prejudice against Kitty, but his investigation runs afoul of the tangled web of lives and careers affected by Kitty's notoriety.