John Ferguson, a whistleblower at Denning, a major pharmaceutical company, becomes disillusioned with the perceived lack of action taken against the company, murders several executives, and commits suicide as the police enter the building. Tom Miller, a paralegal assigned to the Denning case, subsequently loses confidence in the scheduled trial against Denning, as Ferguson was their star witness. Miller's boss criticizes his idealism as financially unsound, and when Miller writes an unsolicited memo on an unrelated case on the Gambizzi crime family, Alan Emmerich, one the partners at the law firm, fires him. Roger, Miller's friend and a fellow paralegal, initially commiserates with Miller, but returns to the office in order to work late. Emmerich sends everyone else, including Miller's girlfriend, Anna, home early due to a technical problem with the firm's Internet access.