Picking up just as we left off, Alicia is about to join Peter on the dais as Will calls. Eli grabs the phone and gets Alicia to take Peter's hand. Will leaves two messages: the first saying he understands they should just drop it, then the second saying no, I love you, and I'm not dropping this. Eli deletes the second message. Before they have a chance to settle things, Will gets caught up in the law firm merger and has to deal with the new partner, Derrick Bond. In court, Alicia is appointed as a counselor to an accused murderer who insists on defending himself.

Vance Salle, the owner of a political website is accused of murdering his partner. He claims that the government is responsible for the murder and framed him, all because of sensitive material that was leaked on his website. The prosecution ' which Cary is a part of ' seems to have a straight forward case. However, it starts to turn in Salle's favor with some clever help from Alicia. Kalinda, along with Bond's investigator Blake, help track down a witness that lends credibility to Salle's conspiracy theory. But in the end, it becomes clear that Salle really is the killer, and the best Alicia can do is to rush to closing arguments before newly-found damning evidence is presented. Alicia convinces Salle to take a 5-year plea before the jury rules.