Edward Green, a likable, young, successful professional, he had seemed happy with life. The only son of rich and generous parents, he had a good career, a loving girlfriend, and plenty of friends. So why did he cut his veins in his luxury condo apartment? Melissa Bonar, one of the best homicide detectives in Canada, is on the case. She found no evidence of a crime. The only clue is Edward's last word: Wolverine.
Melissa's search leads her to Brenda Rorke, a young woman jailed five years earlier in federal prison for attempted murder. When Brenda successfully defends herself against a violent inmate, she earned the nickname Wolverine for her fearlessness and willingness to fight to the death. Soon after the fight, she becomes a model prisoner, earning positive references and glowing recommendations from the wardens and, subsequently, from her parole officer.
Brenda was so well-behaved that Melissa thought she was too good to be true. Brenda is currently living in a trailer park with a full-patch member of a tough biker gang. Digging further, Melissa discovers that Brenda had been raped at a wild graduation party five years earlier and that her abusers uploaded obscene pictures of the crime onto the Internet.
Melissa's case grows more complicated, and more violent drama unfolds with Brenda's abduction by the rival gang, her fierce fight to escape, and the resulting car crash that leads to her attacker's arrest. As Brenda pursues her vendetta, she comes to realize that while the memories of what happened to her might never leave her, but her anger against her attackers is softening; her life, which she once thought was ruined, is surprisingly happy, as she has found love, success, and signs that people can change for the better-as she has. The only question is whether she can stop what she has set in motion without more people getting hurt or killed, including the love of her life.
Wrestling with her own philosophical demons, brought on by the inequities of a corrupt pocket of the criminal justice system, Melissa devises a brilliant but unorthodox solution that will prevent a gang war, end the escalating violence, and bring about an oddly appropriate brand of justice that protects the innocent, neutralizes the guilty, and satisfies her sense of duty, fairness, and right and wrong.
Melissa and Brenda, two strong, intelligent women from different backgrounds, clash in a battle of psychological warfare, only to realize in the end that they share very similar notions of justice and morality, and stand together against a common dilemma: crime and punishment.
