When a wealthy industrialist is found murdered in a small Mississippi town and an African-American man is picked up at the train station with a wallet full of cash, local Police Chief Bill Gillespie immediately assumes he has caught his culprit. He’s soon embarrassed to learn that the man he has arrested is Detective Virgil Tibbs, an experienced police officer from Philadelphia. The unlikely pair are forced to work together to unravel the mystery, leading them on a line of inquiry that will challenge both of their preconceptions.