One day, Kate Woodcroft, a criminal prosecutor that deals with particularly heinous sex crimes gets a new case that she wasn't expecting: that of a British junior government minister, James.
After he comes home one day, James tells his wife Sophie that he has something incredibly important to tell her. Despite being embarrassed and not wanting to hurt his wife, James tells Sophie that he had an affair with a young female staffer named Olivia.
He and his wife spring into action and meet with a man named Chris, who is the communications advisor to the Prime Minister. Chris advises James to put out a statement admitting his mistake and asking for forgiveness. James and Chris hope by putting out the statement, the scandal will blow over. But they don't consider one thing: Olivia herself. According to Olivia, the sexual encounter was not consensual; in fact, she says, James raped her. This leaves James shocked and perplexed, as he thought their encounters were completely consensual.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Kate tells her friend Ali that she has been assigned to James' case. Kate's friend, however, is skeptical that the accusations Olivia leveled against James are legitimate. “Wasn’t she having an affair with him?" her friend questions, "and didn’t she go to the papers after he called it off to be with his wife and kids?"
Despite some skepticism, James' rape trial begins. The prosecution puts Olivia on the stand, whose testimony infuriates James' wife Sophie, who packs a bag and leaves with their kids on a trip away from James. Olivia's testimony continues, however. She testifies that she told James to stop trying to have sex with her, but James didn't relent and told her to not be such a "prick tease."
Eventually, the book reveals that Kate - who previously went by the name Holly - actually knew James quite well decades prior. In fact, she had a crush on him. Despite that, Kate keeps her connection to James quiet and uses some of her experiences with him to prepare for her trial.
Ultimately, the verdict from the jury comes back as not guilty, but Sophie is horrified about what she has heard in Court about her husband. And Kate, who readers discover was raped by James while the two were at Oxford University, reconsiders her life and her past.
