When three Italian teens are accused of stabbing a young Puerto Rican in East Harlem, an ambitious district attorney pushes for the death penalty, but wary assistant DA Hank Bell (Burt Lancaster) wants to dig deeper to find the truth. The case soon grows intensely personal when Hank unearths surprising ties to his own past. This crime drama, an early feature by master director John Frankenheimer, also stars Shelley Winters and Telly Savalas.