When wealthy gentleman Roderick Westerfield is accused of murdering a ship and stealing its diamonds, the trial exposes far more than a crime. The courtroom opens on twelve jurors debating guilt with dark humor while the accused sits rigid with composure. But it is the domestic scene that follows that cuts deepest: his wife, the showy Mrs. Westerfield, more concerned with her appearance than her terrified daughter, reveals a family rotting from within. The verdict arrives like a door slamming shut. What follows is the unraveling of a man who believed he was clever enough to escape consequence, and the wife who may have known more than she let on. Collins, the master of Victorian sensation, weaves courtroom drama with psychological portraiture to show how one man's 'genius' for deception becomes the evil that destroys everyone around him.
