After his young son dies from the negligence at a hospital, Harry Fertig takes matters into his own hands and kills the doctor, nurse and clerk responsible. Slick lawyer Roy Bleakie, looking only to win a case and not caring of the matters involved, is asked by Fertig's boss to defend him. Shocked to hear that his client wants to plead guilty, the case causes Bleakie to question his own morals by defending an honorable man.

This absorbing 1976 production of dramatist Sidney Kingsley's historical play centers on the formative days of the United States and the disputes between founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Although the two men greatly respect each other, the deep-seated clash in their ideologies engenders conflict just as the fledgling country is beginning to take root.

Perry is suing a gutter trash newspaper that is running a story about a love affair between him and Della. The editor also has "dirt" files on an Army General, his banker and other "clients". All of them make little-concealed verbal threats to him at a party but the person that hated him most is a female reporter who the editor had just fired from the paper for attempting to write a serious story. She threatens him and soon after the editor is found, floating in his pool, shot. The reporter is arrested for the crime and Perry, who has a personal stake in this matter, with the aid of Della and Paul set out to solve the mystery. But the other suspects just want the case over with and will go to any lengths to protect their pasts and their secrets