 Callum Crane is in line for appointment to the federal bench, during the same week he rapes a new secretary at his office.It's also the same week Nathan Corrigan (a young, callow ex-con) goes to the city to meet his biological father, the same Callum Crane.They meet and before Nathan can tell Crane who he is, Crane offers him money to kill the secretary, who has threatened to go to the police.