Michael Trainer (Matthew Modine) is a lawyer at the center of a trial in which a for-profit foster care agency is accused of putting a known sex offender into the same foster home as his young client Jamal (Shane Paul McGhie), with catastrophic results.
Michael, a successful litigator with a long career protecting corporate interests, at first wants nothing to do with Jamal’s case, until a judge forces him to accept it. Initially he sees Jamal as a kid off the street looking to grab a piece of corporate profits. But when Jamal refuses to settle the case for any amount of money, Michael begins his representation in earnest.
Louis Gossett, Jr. also appears as the judge overseeing the case.
As their work together reveals the horrifying depth of the corrupt and abusive for-profit foster care agency, Michael is transformed from cynical skeptic to fierce warrior in the pursuit of justice.
Amy Brenneman and Evan Handler round out a formidable cast.