Frank Perrin was a professor of computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of the best selling industrial espionage treatise, Spy by Wire, published by University of California Press. Shortly after the book's success, Frank entered into a romance with his editor Dawn Soderstrom, who was approximately ten years his junior. He abandoned his wife Nicole Gunther, toddler daughter Kimberley, and infant son Justin. Despite his newfound wealth, he exhibited a curious laxity in his payment of child support.