With female QCs (Queen's Counsel) or 'silks' in a tiny minority, barrister Martha Costello, of the Shoe Lane Chambers, is anxious to join that elite number by progressing through the courts. Following a successful acquittal in a murder trial she is given two cases to defend at short notice. Mercedes Cordoba, a pregnant drugs mule. The other is Gary Rush, charged with robbing and assaulting elderly war hero Michael Dodd.