 When a decorated and respected police officer is stabbed to death in a street riot, Detective Supt. Gannon promises his widow that justice will be done. When the self-confessed, mentally-challenged perpetrator confesses, his vow would seem to fulfilled, especially when Judge Guthrie Featherstone voices his certitude about the defendant s guilt in open court. The conviction is overturned on appeal when evidence surfaces that part of the confession seems to have been altered and the judge s conduct is called into question. Featherstone is pressured into presiding at Gannon s trial and has to contend with Rumpole for the defense. With his wife out of town, A depressed Featherstone indiscreetly goes to a club with attractive legal clerk Dot Clapton.