when the rules don’t apply  while growing up together in a boston neighborhood, timmy flaherty and donny faye are as different as night and day. timmy lives by the rules while donny refuses to accept them. after the boys serve in vietnam, timmy earns a law degree, but donny stays in the military—a decision that surprises everyone who knows him.<br><br>after donny violates the army’s rules, he receives a dishonorable discharge and afterwards begins to work for percy dwyer, a notorious boston crime boss. when donny’s poor choices ultimately lead him to be charged with murder, he turns to his boyhood friend, timmy, to defend him. timmy is initially reluctant to take on a murder case, but is cajoled into it by donny. when evidence is discovered proving donny’s guilt beyond a doubt, timmy finds himself trapped between his obligation to a boyhood friendship, the morality of defending a murder and his oath to represent a client with fidelity. but what no one knows is that the case is about to take a surprising turn that will change everything.<br><br>in this legal thriller, boyhood friends are drawn together again as adults after one of them allegedly commits murder and asks the other to defend him.