An insistent, relentless doorbell clanging and then the furious assault of fists upon wood and glass of the door interrupts what was a joyous celebration of the McDevitt Cuffe Clan. On the other side of that door, a messenger is bearing news that is a nightmare for any family: A family member is about to be charged with murder. Law partners Dan McDevitt and Mickey Cuffe and their entire family are about to be plunged into the trial of their lives as they try to save the life of a nephew who seems hell bent on convicting himself. But the trial is the least of the troubles that await them as they are drawn into a plot to by a criminal kingpin and secret society of right-wing millionaires to destroy the nation's capital and the city of New York. The gang has attacked a U.S. Army weapons laboratory. and stolen weapons that employ the power of the stars. Dan and Mickey and FBI Agent Jack McLaughlin And their crew must match wits with a criminal genius and vicious millionaires who seek to to provoke a war with America's real and imagined enemies. The struggle to recover these weapons comes to a head on the oil and gas platforms of the Gulf of Mexico where the fate of the nation and maybe the world rests on a drama professor from an Ivy League school and a retired and weary, retired New Orleans police detective.