A veteran cop takes justice into his own hands when he shoots a drug dealer and attempts to hide the crime, believing the corruption endemic in the highest echelons of government will serve to protect him. However, an inexperienced assistant district attorney starts to investigate the case - and quickly smells a rat. Sidney Lumet's thriller, starring Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, Armand Assante and Patrick O'Neal.

A young district attorney seeking to prove a case against a corrupt police detective encounters a former lover and her new protector, a crime boss who refuses to help him.