The powerful chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democrat Bernie Edelstein of California, dies suddenly of a heart attack, leaving the Democrats with a razor-slim one-vote Senate margin. The state's Republican Governor, Colin Frank, now must appoint a successor. The leading candidate is Republican Assembly Speaker Johnny Callahan, a former college football hero with movie star good looks, political connections and White House ambitions. Led by a prominent Hollywood producer, Callahan has influential supporters who are determined to see him in the Senate, but why is someone risking his life and resorting to lies and trickery to try to block the appointment? Unwittingly, Sacramento television reporter Jack Summerland stumbles onto the story and soon finds himself in the middle of deadly game of political intrigue that takes him from the halls of power at the State Capitol to the back streets of Sacramento and academia in Berkeley. In this thrilling page-turner, Summerland hurdles obstacles every step of the way as he struggles to expose the political scandal of the century with the nation's political future hanging in the balance.