Amazon.com description: Product Description: It's 1986. Like most public defenders, Rachel Stein is an adrenaline junkie. Inspired by the case of a battered woman who stabbed her husband to death, she devotes herself tirelessly to the woman's defense. It's the kind of case every public defender was born for. The case could change the course of law, but it ends up changing the course of Rachel's life instead. When the trial is over, Rachel impetuously joins a brigade to war torn Nicaragua where she risks her life to learn the crucial art of balance.