When the Law Goes to Sleep is about the life of an honest and hardworking undercover officer, Wyatt Owen, who was killed in the line of duty by some powerful forces in his department after speaking up against corruption and unethical practices in the agency. His wife’s attempt at obtaining justice for him hit the brick wall as the same forces successfully subverted the administration of justice. 

Additionally, the killing of her six-year-old only son, Wyatt Owen II, alongside her new friend, an African American, in a case of mistaken identity by Officer Kenneth Brain, was one loss too many. Penelope could not understand how Officer Kenneth Brain could still be acquitted of any wrongdoing in the case. 

Having been denied justice in each occasion, Penelope believed that the law had practically gone to sleep on all cases concerning her. She was torn between living with injustice and going ahead to obtain justice for her son extrajudicially. Her taking the law into her own hands by assassinating officer Kenneth Brain during his promotion ceremony was her own attempt at getting back at a society where some individuals can afford to fall short of the law and still go scot-free; a society where some lives seem to matter more than others.