Joe King Oliver était l'un des meilleurs enquêteurs du NYPD jusqu'à ce qu'il soit accusé d'aggression, une accusation qui l'amène dans la tristement célèbre prison de Rikers Island. Une décennie plus tard, King est un détective privé, dirigeant son agence avec l'aide de sa fille adolescente, Aja-Denise. Quand il reçoit un message de la femme qui avoue avoir été payée par un membre du NYPD pour l'inculper il y a tant d'années, King est déterminé d'apprendre qui, au sein de la force, voulait le voir éliminé - et pourquoi.

Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD's finest investigators until, dispatched to arrest a well-heeled car thief, he is framed for assault, a charge that lands him in the notorious Rikers Island prison. A decade later, King is a private detective, running his agency with the help of his teenage daughter, Aja-Denise. When he receives a card in the mail from the woman who admits she was paid by someone in the NYPD to frame him all those years ago, King realises that he has no choice but to take his own case: figuring out who on the force wanted him disposed of - and why. At the same time, King must investigate the case of black radical journalist Leonard Compton, aka A Free Man, accused of killing two on-duty police officers who had been abusing their badges to traffic drugs and women into the city's poorest neighbourhoods. In pursuit of justice, our hero must beat dirty cops and even dirtier bankers. All the while, two lives hang in the balance: Compton's, and King's own.