Idealistic young attorney Adam Hall (Chris O'Donnell) takes on the death row clemency case of his unrepentant Klansman grandfather, Sam Cayhall (Gene Hackman), in this big-screen adaptation of a John Grisham novel. The pair's prickly meetings and Adam's visits with his alcoholic Aunt Lee (Faye Dunaway) force Hall to confront his family's dark past just as new evidence arises and suggests a government conspiracy in Cayhall's case.