Colin Sheffield is twenty-eight years old and enjoying modest success as a literary novelist. Colin's brother Courtney is, at twenty-one, on the brink of international fame as one of the NBA's hottest new prospects. But Colin and Courtney are deeply estranged from each other. To Colin, Courtney is the enemy--and the feeling is entirely mutual. The brothers were once inseparable, until they endured a horrible incident together when they were adolescents. The tragedy destroyed their close friendship forever. As fierce rivals, Colin and Courtney both had a hand in stoking the fires of their enmity over the years. Colin, the brains of the family, reveled in the approval he seemed to win so effortlessly from their mother. Courtney, a basketball prodigy and a magnet for trouble, failed time and again to win his family's approval. But only Courtney knew Colin's secret--that he was by no means the golden child he seemed. Over the years, Courtney has held this dark knowledge over Colin's head as an ever-present threat. Now, in adulthood, the brothers seem further apart than ever. Colin is married with a baby daughter. But he can't seem to break through and find the literary stardom that he feels is his due. Meanwhile, the world is eager to crown Courtney as the next king of the NBA--but his family fears that he's not strong enough to resist the temptations that go with a career in professional sports. As the animosity and tension between Colin and Courtney escalate to fever pitch, the secrets of the past threaten to come to light at last.