SUMMARY
The story begins with an escape from a fire in Louisiana twenty years ago: two girls run desperately from an exploding barn, leaving behind an unexplained traumatic mystery.
Twenty years later, one of the grown-up girls, Assistant District Attorney RACHEL PARISH, is an African-American female lawyer emerging in San Francisco. She is intelligent, calm, has never lost a case, and is engaged to TERRY JESSUP, the son of a former governor, with a bright future ahead. However, a cruel murder case disrupted her peaceful life: a child sex offender whom she had convicted was brutally killed, and the only eyewitness, PETER HALL, identified the murderer as the mysterious woman LILLIAN WICK.
When Rachel first met Lillian in court, she was shocked to find that she was actually her childhood best friend ASHLEY . Twenty years ago, on a farm in Louisiana, Rachel was sexually assaulted by her father. Ashley shot her father dead and set fire to the barn to save her, and the two were separated as a result. From then on, Rachel changed her name and lived under a false identity, while Ashley transformed into Lillian and embarked on a path of revenge by lynching the sex offender.
Lillian's appearance was no accident.Step by step, she draws Rachel into her own bloody game: she uses her evidence to escape murder charges, kills more of Rachel's convicted criminals, and eventually threatens to expose Rachel's past, forcing her to confront their twisted, controlling and violent symbiotic relationship. Rachel struggled between career, love and conscience, trying to cover up her past.
Ultimately, in a warehouse filled with hay (echoing the tragic scene of childhood), Lillian sets up a trap for Rachel to face another sexual offender, Tino Salva, attempting to force Rachel to kill with her own hands. Rachel chose to fight back at the last moment and exchanged fire with Lillian and TINO along with HAYES who had arrived. Lillian died in the fire, Hayes was injured, and Rachel was shot in the thigh.
Two months later, Rachel chose to confess everything to the bar association and accept professional sanctions. She resigned from her position, reconciled with Terry, and the two left San Francisco for a small town in central California, seeking an ordinary new life.