Dr. Rhea Morgan, a prominent educator, scholar, and researcher, steps out of the train station in D.C. where she is meeting her research planning team in-person for the first time. To her surprise, she is greeted by the newly appointed grant director, Dr. David Howard, her long ago first love. Handsome as ever and standing tall with his blue-grey eyes unblinking, Rhea feels the daggers piercing her heart as old memories flood her brain. Sporting her ear-to-ear smile on what she calls her negotiations face, Rhea begins plotting a "new lie" to keep David from discovering a 30-year-old secret that would destroy the stability of her family as well as his.

While David is perplexed and angered by Rhea's attitude and behavior, he becomes more determined to uncover the truth-why this poor, Black woman who had driven him, a rich, white man, to almost becoming an alcoholic and two steps away from putting a gun to his own head-had dropped off the face of the earth only to reappear 30 years later, with a new name and playing a totally different game.