When director Abel Ferrara's films are good, they are exceptionally good, as proved by King of New York, Ms 45 and this highly controversial tale of a corrupt cop (Harvey Keitel) getting one last chance at redemption when he investigates the rape of a nun. The problem is that she has forgiven her attackers and therefore refuses to name them. This depiction of one man's vice-ridden hell is sexually explicit and brutally violent to an extreme degree, but the intention of Ferrara's furious walk on the wild side is to shock audiences out of their complacency. Keitel gives the bravest performance of his career so far as the lapsed Catholic in serious debt and even worse moral and ethical chaos.

While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.