Fiona Maye is a leading High Court judge who presides over cases in the family division. She is renowned for her fierce intelligence, exactitude, and sensitivity. But her professional success belies private sorrow and domestic strife. There is the lingering regret of her childlessness, and now her marriage of thirty years is in crisis. At the same time, she is called on to try an urgent case: Adam, a beautiful seventeen-year-old boy, is refusing for religious reasons the medical treatment that could save his life, and his devout parents echo his wishes. Time is running out. Should the secular court overrule sincerely expressed faith? In the course of reaching a decision, Fiona visits Adam in the hospital—an encounter that stirs long-buried feelings in her and powerful new emotions in the boy. Her judgment has momentous consequences for them both.


費歐娜是高等法院負責家事法庭的法官。她極具智慧、謹慎敏銳，但是在她事業成就的背後，卻隱藏著無比的悲傷和家庭糾紛。結婚三十餘年卻膝下無子，讓她的婚姻面臨危機。
此刻費歐娜接下了一件緊急的案子：一名俊美的十七歲青年亞當，因宗教因素拒絕接受治療，而他虔誠的父母也支持他的選擇，因此他的生命隨時會畫下句點。
時間不等人，究竟世俗的法庭該不該強迫他違背宗教信仰？達成決議前，費歐娜親自到醫院探望亞當。兩人的會面掀起費歐娜深藏已久的內心渴望，也讓亞當感受到前所未有的強烈情感。她的判決牽動著兩人的命運。