O'Donnell plays Adam, a young lawyer who, for his own healing, takes on defending Sam, his grandfather, a convicted killer and loyal member of the Ku Klux Klan, portrayed by Gene Hackman. Lee, Sam's daughter and Adam's aunt, Faye Dunaway, plays a socialite who does not want to deal with her feelings towards her racist father, or her fear, anger and guilt from the past. However, Adam's desperate attempt to uncover the truth about his grandfather before execution day and the gas chamber, forces her and others to deal.

From the visually impaired point of view, this movie was quite enjoyable. There were only a few major characters with very distinct voices. There was an abundant amount of dialogue that was easy to follow along with very few abrupt jumps from one scene to another. There were a couple of tough scenes with no words and just music, so having a sighted assistant with you to talk you through those scenes would be useful, although not a complete necessity. There were some two or three second visual flashbacks that I was not aware of, but this did not impede my ability to follow the story. A couple of times there were newspaper headlines that I would have missed completely without an assistant. Not having this information would have definitely made things more difficult to follow.