Sometimes the best education a lawyer can have is a short stretch of hard time. Young attorney and single mother Martha Foster is in serious need of a fresh start. So when a perfect job opportunity falls into her lap, Martha drops everything to move her and her five-year-old son to charming Ava, Alabama, where even the Welcome Wagon comes out to greet them. Instead of the bustling case load she expected to have as the new public defender, however, Martha is surprised to find herself with little to do, her legal aid rebuffed at every turn. Judge Wyatt Pickens, the charismatic head of the local courts, urges Martha to enjoy her cushy new job. But as she digs deeper into Ava's methods of justice, Martha becomes more and more convinced that there's something deeply twisted happening-and that Pickens himself has a hold on the town that goes well beyond the bench.