The attorney her parents hire to defend her quits after Claudia assaults him, so the court appoints public defender Aaron Levinsky to handle her case. She resists him as well until she finally accepts that he is on her side. Aaron begins to probe her background to determine how the child of supposedly model upper middle class parents could find herself in this situation, and with each piece of her past he uncovers, he receives additional, disturbing insight into what brought Claudia to this crossroads in her life. During a cross-examination, it is revealed that Arthur molested Claudia as a child.