VILLAIN OR VICTIM? Magnolia Kanaranzi, a woman with a mysterious past, has been elected to the U.S. Senate. Before she can take office, she is charged with conspiring to murder her own mother. Kanaranzi adamantly maintains her innocence, but the facts point to her guilt, and her attorney, nationally prominent criminal defense lawyer, Napoleon Taft, seeks to have her declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.

With the threat of the death penalty hanging over her head, Kanaranzi reluctantly agrees to be examined by forensic psychologist Bishop Pollock. Multiple psychoanalytic sessions result in the discovery that Kanaranzi has multiple personalities, at least one of which has violent tendencies. Fearing that she will end up in a mental institution for the rest of her life, she escapes from custody and goes into hiding.

Through it all, Kanaranzi's son, Hamilton Blethen, whom she abandoned when he was four years old, seeks to reconcile with his mother. Drawn into an FBI investigation of Kanaranzi's escape, Blethen becomes an unknowing target. Despite her mistrust of him, Kanaranzi struggles with an instinctual desire to see her son one last time before permanently fleeing the country. Her ultimate decision sets in motion events where perception and reality collide, and Kanaranzi discovers that, for her, there is only one path to redemption.