Things quickly go wrong for Frank: his client's brother-in-law finds out from "the other side" that he has turned down the $210,000, and angrily confronts Frank; his star medical expert disappears; a hastily arranged substitute's credentials and testimony are called into serious question on the witness stand. His opponent, the high-priced attorney Ed Concannon (James Mason), has at his disposal a large legal team that is masterful with the press; the presiding judge (Milo O'Shea) makes deliberate efforts to obstruct Frank's questioning of his expert; and no one who was in the operating room is willing to testify that there was any negligence.
Frank's big break comes when he discovers that Kaitlin Costello (Lindsay Crouse), the nurse who admitted his client to the hospital, is now a preschool teacher in New York. Frank travels there to track her down, leaving Mickey and Laura working together in Frank's Boston office. Frank confronts Costello, asking, "Will you help me?"