In Grisham's story, the scenario is a large, high stakes lawsuit brought by Celeste Wood against Pynex, one of the country's largest tobacco companies, four years after her husband's death. It is her claim that her husband, Jacob Wood, died from lung cancer as a result of smoking Pynex's cigarettes over a thirty year period. Pynex and three other major tobacco companies have joined forces to fight such lawsuits, each having secretly contributed millions of dollars to what they call The Fund. The tobacco companies have prevailed in each of the eight previous suits, and so, even though they are competitors, they remain united on this front. They fear that one loss would open the floodgates to future litigations, resulting in financial ruin for all of them. To insure that the odds remain in their favor, the tobacco companies have hired Rankin Fitch, "a ruthless schemer and security expert" (Donahue). Fitch is the most important player for the defense, even though he has no part in the actual court proceedings. Without regard for legalities, he uses whatever tricks he feels are necessary to bring back the "not guilty" verdicts demanded by his employers. He and his large staff of investigators accomplish this by conducting in-depth pretrial research to the point of intrusion into the personal lives of potential jurors. Even though a few of his tactics are illegal, he is respected by the Big Four companies. Officially, though, the defense is headed by Durwood Cable and his team of attorneys. While Cable claims no specific knowledge of Fitch's illegal activities, he is aware that Fitch is the real force in the defense team, and in the end looks to him to alter the outcome.
The attorneys for the plaintiff, led by local attorney, Wendall Rohr, are not much better, morally, then the defense. Rohr and his team have handpicked Celeste Wood as the plaintiff for this suit. Their interest is not in righting the wrong caused her husband's addiction to cigarettes, but in their own financial gain and fame.
