When a 19-year-old boy dies in a drunk driving accident, Madeline Underwood decides to convince the world that Kischel Brewery's soft drink leads young people to try the harder stuff. But Underwood faces formidable enemies: Kischel's investment bankers, including the unmistakable John Putnam Thatcher, their razor-sharp attorneys and no less than the head of a Congressional committee that she's managed to publicly embarrass. So when Madeline is found dead, stuffed in the closet of the building where the committee convened, it takes all of Thatcher's acumen to sift through a long list of killers. It's the case that would drive a lesser man to drink.