Yaloquena County District Attorney Willie Mitchell Banks runs for re-election against Eleanor Bernstein, whose vicious smear campaign against Willie Mitchell is being orchestrated by the Reverend Bobby Sanders, longtime nemesis of the D.A. At a political rally on the Fourth of July, seven-year-old Danny Thurman goes missing. In spite of a county-wide search, the boy’s body is never found. A month after the boy’s disappearance, Ross Bullard, son of prominent banker Jules Bullard, shoots himself and leaves a note incriminating himself in the disappearance of Danny. Bullard survives his suicide attempt. Willie Mitchell explains to Danny’s parents that without Danny's body it will be almost impossible to convict Bullard. The parents say they understand, but insist that Willie Mitchell go forward with the prosecution of Bullard for Danny’s murder. Famed defense attorney J.D. Silver fights for Bullard and tries to get the case dismissed, arguing that without a body, there’s no proof of murder. Willie Mitchell presses the case forward to a trial before a local jury, even though it’s unlikely he can win a jury verdict that will hold up on appeal, and equally unlikely the D.A. can win his own re-election.