Lee Roy Sears, the artist-murderer in Snake Eyes, is saved from the electric chair largely because of the efforts of Michael O'Meara, a lawyer whose pro bono work has introduced him to Sears and his art. O'Meara defends him because Sears's guilt is unclear and his poverty has caused the justice system to fail him. He also defends him because of his own sense of guilt for something he cannot pinpoint, but that we learn involves the drowning of his own twin when they were two years old.

Once Michael negotiates the release of Lee Roy Sears, Sears gradually works his way into the community and into the O'Meara family, seducing or almost seducing, various women, including Michael's sister Janet and his wife Gina. Worse, Sears befriends the O'Meara's twin boys, secretly teaching them to curse and fascinating and intimidating them with his tattoo. By adding the image...