After seeing countless thugs turned loose thanks to legal loopholes or extraneous details, Judge Steve Hardin (Michael Douglas) accepts elder associate Benjamin Caulfield's (Hal Holbrook) offer to join the club known as "The Star Chamber." The group of nine judges uses any means necessary to ensure that criminals get what's coming to them, even if that means murder. When Hardin has second thoughts about his involvement, the club turns on him.