When an English teacher at Attica State Prison asks his incarcerated students to write about why they're in prison, he is astounded by the story of Charles Schine. Schine is a white, upper middle-class ad exec who meets Lucinda, a married woman, on the Long Island Railroad. Sharing pictures of their kids soon leads to a rendezvous in a sordid downtown hotel. But before they actually enter the room, they are held up by a man who rapes Lucinda, assaults Charles, and steals both their wallets. He then proceeds to blackmail them.

Desperate, Charles hires someone to eliminate him—but it's the hit man who ends up dead. In a world where no one is who they seem to be, Charles sinks deeper into a labyrinth of deceit, murder, and betrayal, it's clear why Charles is in Attica—and what he's come to do there.