An author takes up teaching in a prison, and forms a close relationship with a convicted murderer who is desperate to make amends for his crimes. However, their efforts to get him paroled unleash the fury of the victim's sister, who struggles to overcome her hatred and forget the past. Moving drama, with Matthew Modine, Obba Babatunde and Michele Greene.

When a Black Panther raid on the house of a dope dealer goes awry, an innocent young man is killed and the leader of the raid team, a Panther named Charles Henderson (Obba Babatunde), is sentenced to life in prison. Bestselling author Paul Freeman (Modine) offers a creative-writing class in Henderson's prison, initially looking for a story for his next book; but when Henderson becomes his student, Freeman starts to investigate Henderson's case and becomes convinced that, after 20 years, Henderson deserves to be released--but the next step is convincing the sister of the man whose death Henderson is responsible for.