May, 1786. Two men fight a duel on a misty, isolated field west of Philadelphia. One of the duelists is shot through the forehead without firing his weapon, yet the surviving duelist claims he shot into the ground, not at his opponent. On his return to the city, he's arrested and jailed by the Sherriff on two charges. Murder and dueling. His wealthy father begs Revolutionary War veteran James Jamison to prove his son's innocence, because everybody in Philadelphia credits Jamison with having proven six months earlier that a Quaker accused of murder was not guilty when it seemed certain he was.

What the public does not know is that Benjamin Franklin, America's most accomplished scientist and inventor, solved that mystery. Captain Jamison was only the legman in the investigation. Can Franklin-by looking into the case of a young man who was forced to fight a duel but didn't want to fire at his opponent-reveal the truth of how the dead duelist was killed and see justice done?