She was a little bit askew. A little bit angry. And a little bit sexy. All in all, cross-eyed Lainie Commins had the right stuff to get Matthew Hope to take her case: a copyright infringement suit against toy company tycoons Etta and Brett Toland, who Lainie claims have stolen her idea for a cuddly cross-eyed teddy bear named Gladly. But before Matthew Hope can sue, he gets another case. This one is homicide. And Lainie Commins has been charged.

In a world of fabulous wealth and sun-seared squalor, from the yachting types to the tooting types to the dangerous sexual games that Lainie played, Matthew Hope is trying to see one thing straight: is his client a beauty with a blemish -- or a killer whose gun-sight is twenty-twenty.