Jane Wells was trapped in a nightmare. The man she married was an abusive, philandering maniac. The courts knew this, but because of a Kentucky law that forbids pregnant women to divorce, she was forced to endure a living hell. After Jane gave birth to her daughter, she entered a battered women's shelter, filed charges against Michael, and sued for divorce. Fate finally seemed to smile down on her when her first husband, her childhood sweetheart, reappeared offering his help. Thinking she was safe at last, Jane encountered a legal system that fueled Michael's vengeful rage, abuse, and harassment of her life and family. When a judge inexplicably reversed a restraining order, Michael's path of destruction would lead inexorably, one streamy day in July, to a vicious act of murder.