Part one. Twenty eight years two months twenty six days

On May 4, 1950, in Pittsburgh, a man abducts seven-year-old Elina from a schoolyard. This is her father, Leo Ross, after a divorce from his wife, deprived of the right to meet with his daughter. Leo loves his daughter and hates his ex-wife, the beautiful Ardis. He sends Ardis mocking letters, trying to knock her off the trail. Leo takes the girl to the West, to California. So that no one recognizes Elina, Leo dyes her hair black. In San Francisco, he rents a room, not telling the hostess that he is a child. He asks Elina to be as quiet as possible, to move less when he is not at home. She meekly obeys her father, never asks for food, and he forgets to feed her, she does not like to wash her hair, and he stops washing the girl. Elina gets sick, and despite the madness, he realizes that his daughter cannot stay with him. Leo Ross escapes, and Elina first goes to the hospital, and then to her mother. Ardis, who works as a model, joins Elina at work. The girl dutifully sits under the bright light without moving and does not complain even when her eyes tweak. Mother and daughter are in commercials. Mr. Carman, the landlord of the apartment Ardis rents, takes care of her and takes care of Elina. He offers Ardis to enter into a civil marriage, and she, having thought, agrees. After registering the marriage, Ardis and Elina gather in Chicago, where Karman will soon join them. Having taken money from him to buy a house, Ardis and Elina are leaving, but not in Chicago, but in New York. They stay there for four years - from 1956 to 1960. Ardis’s modeling career does not work out, and she goes to work in a nightclub. When the owner of the club, Sadoff moves to Detroit, he offers Ardis to move there with him. She becomes the co-owner of the new club, buys a house for herself. Elina is growing up, in a few months she will finish school. Sadoff, whom Ardis wants to marry Elina, somehow invites them to the club, where they accidentally meet with the famous lawyer Marvin Howe. Marvin, who is over forty, at first sight falls in love with young Elina. Elina does not like Sadoff, but she likes the clever, youthful Howe, and soon through the efforts of Ardis, she marries him. Howe is crazy about his beautiful wife, he treats her carefully, as with an expensive trinket, never tells her about his work. He limits her communication with her mother so that no one except him can influence Elina. Once at a reception, Elina is introduced to TV journalist Maria Sharp, in which she is surprised to recognize her mother! Ardis changed her role, changed her appearance and even took herself a new name.

Part two. Scattered facts, events, conjectures, evidence taken into account and not accepted

In 1953, a murder takes place in Detroit - Joseph Morrissey kills Neil Stelin, a construction contractor. The mentally retarded son of Morrissey Ronnie climbed onto the construction site, and he was littered with construction waste. Morrissey considers Stelin guilty of the death of his beloved youngest son. The young lawyer Marvin Howe undertakes to defend Morrissey. He is trying to convince his eldest son, Jack, who believes that his father is guilty, for he has driven himself to a dull mind that he is actually innocent. Jack loves his father, but does not want to lie, even in order to save him. Howe inspires him that everything is relative, that human memory is imperfect, that he must have noticed this and that, in general, tells him what evidence he should give in court. The court acknowledges that Joseph Morrissey acted in a state of temporary dullness of reason, and acquits him. This process brings fame to Marvin Howe.

Jack Morrissey grows up and becomes a lawyer.He works on various committees, helps lawyers in the American Civil Liberties Union defend civil rights in the North, then travels south to Java, the center of Lyme County, Mississippi, where the National Association for the Development of Color Populations and the American Union for Struggle civil liberties opened a legal aid office. He meets Rachel, who also fights for the rights of blacks, and together they try to persuade the parents of the murdered white cop, Harley, to sue. Jack believes in the law, believes in the triumph of justice, he is persistent in achieving the goal. But blacks do not believe in success and do not initiate business. For Jack, the main thing is not to win the process, but to promote change, to pave the way for other claims to appear in court, and the relatives of Hurley do not want to be guided by general considerations and are afraid of revenge. Jack marries Rachel and returns to Detroit. Rachel works in the local branch of the Committee to End the Vietnam War. Three years after Jack's unsuccessful attempt, the Hurley hearing is resumed. He is led by lawyer Divi. Jack offers his help, but Deevee does not respond to his letter. Although now, in July 1967, there is much more hope of winning the process, Divi loses it. Jack writes a message of condolences to him. In 1969, Jack accidentally met with Brower, a young lawyer and assistant to Divi in ​​the Harley case. Brower lives in Ann Arbor and comes to Detroit once a week to lecture in adult courses. One day, Brower shows Jack one of his listeners in the crack - a blonde of about twenty and a little, very pretty, but, as it seems to Jack, "some kind of fake." Her calm face “seemed almost erased, as if nonexistent, if the woman had not been so good.” This is Elina Howe. At work, Jack discovers that Elina’s face is before his eyes. In January 1970, Jack sought justification for a twenty-three-year-old black man accused of raping a white woman, although the jury consists entirely of wealthy whites. He is very proud of himself: he managed to convince everyone that the victim herself was to blame, that she, knowingly or unconsciously, provoked the crime. A Grand Jury Council is being set up in the county to investigate the "illegal drug trade," which the authorities are using to stifle freedom of speech. Jack and Rachel are fighting against this council. Rachel receives a subpoena, but does not want to go to court. Jack scolds her for disrespect for the law, they quarrel. Jack feels that he and Rachel are different people, that they are far apart. In April 1971, Jack accidentally meets Elina on the street and follows her, several times appearing very close, but she does not know him and does not pay attention to him. She stops with a distant look in front of the statue, and Jack, suspecting that something is wrong with her, calls out to her.

Part three. The crime

Elina is dizzy. Jack takes her home. In parting, he leaves her his phone number, but she does not call him. In June, Marvin unexpectedly sends Elina to her friend in California. There she recalls Jack and calls him. Jack did not expect her call, because two months have passed since the day they met. Jack asks Elina when she will be back, but she does not know and invites him to come to her in San Francisco. The next day, Jack arrives in San Francisco, where Elina is already waiting for him at the hotel. He becomes her lover.

Marvin Howe is talking with one of his friends. He asks what to do if a case is opened against a large trust or a private company and the prosecutor is the prosecutor. Howe believes that the only way out is to declare nolo contendere - “do what you want with me” - and surrender to his mercy.

Back in Detroit, Elina and Jack continue to meet secretly. Their feeling is getting more serious. The husband never tells Elina about his affairs, Jack, on the contrary, devotes her to all his professional difficulties.He defends blacks, but blacks prefer black lawyers, so his clients, as a rule, are those whom no one else wants to defend, "an old man who has not lost faith in the struggle for civil rights since the sixties." Jack undertakes to defend Meredith Dow - a preacher of universal love and the enemy of violence, who is considered almost a saint, Jack tells Elina that Rachel wants to bring up the child in the hope that this will unite their family. Rachel believes that now is not the time to give birth to children, but a child who has already been born needs parents, even foster children. Jack realizes that this will separate him from Elina, and does not know what to do.

Elina goes to a public performance by Meredith Dow. During the rally, riots begin, some girl next to her is knocked down. Two men take Elina away from the meeting and bring him home. She understands that these are the people her husband hired to keep an eye on her. Dou break through the skull and damage the spine. He's in the hospital. Jack is getting ready for the process. He defends not the views of Dow and not even himself, but his right to have his views and preach them.

Ardis tells Elina that he is marrying an English aristocrat and is moving to England. Jack tells Elina that if she leaves her husband, he will leave his wife, if Elina does not want to live with him, then tomorrow she and his wife sign documents for the adoption of the child and then he will not be able to meet with Elina. Elina cannot decide to leave her husband, Jack screams at her in a rage, they quarrel, Jack calls her a "thing." Elina returns to Marvin, who does not reproach her for anything and burns all the papers and photographs related to her romance with Jack. Marvin watched her all the time and knew everything, but did not say anything to her. He still loves her.

To summarize

Elina's father Leo Ross, never found by the police, decides to commit suicide. He goes to the cinema, the next day he goes to the same film again. The cashier who remembers the strange visitor wants to see him again and waits for him to leave after the session, but Leo disappears - the emergency exit is locked, but he did not go through the main exit. The cashier and the policeman are sure that the cashier simply did not notice him.

The court sentenced Meredith Dow to imprisonment of eight to ten years. Dow writes letters from the prison to the judge, appeals. He demands that in the future Jack Morrissey, who does not share his views, be removed from business, and wants to protect himself. Rachel sees that although a child has appeared in their family, he and Jack have not become closer. She threatens to leave Jack and leave with the baby in Seattle. Once Jack and Rachel accidentally fall into the house of Stelin, who was killed by Jack's father, now this house belongs to completely different people. Everyone sympathizes with Jack, who lost the Dow case. Jack gets drunk and Rachel takes him home.

Elina leaves on the coast of Maine, where Marvin has a house. Marvin is very gentle and careful with her. After living there from late April to late August, she suddenly tells Marvin that she can no longer be his wife and wants to leave. Marvin asks her not to rush and after eleven years of marriage together to wait at least a few days. Elina calls Jack, but Jack answers her no and hangs up. Marvin begs Elina not to leave him, but she does not want to stay with him. She refuses money and only at the end takes the banknotes that he throws after her so that she does not go penniless, Elina comes to Jack's house and asks him to go downstairs. She is waiting for him on the street, but he still does not go and does not go. When he finally appears, they both smile in surprise and joy at each other and at that moment forget about everything else.