

Returning from war, weary and wounded, British sailors are treated with contempt and abuse at the Greenwich Hospital. One man bravely exposes the corruption, and finds himself in a Newgate cell. Southouse accuses Garrow of mixed motives as his uses the case to attack The Admiralty - and in particular its Under Secretary, Sir Arthur Hill.
Garrow defends a man accused of sodomy, a capital offence in Georgian England. But Garrow is embroiled in a simmering sexual scandal of his own - Sir Arthur Hill has accused him of adultery with his wife. In representing an accused homosexual, Garrow risks gossip and humiliation. And, it turns out, he must also perpetuate a lie.