In the first of a potential series of films inspired by the real-life experiences of Los Angeles police officer turned bestselling author Joseph Wambaugh, an on-the-skids detective, with memories of having accidentally shot and killed his partner while they were pursuing a pair of bank robbers, tries to put his life back in order.
An unemployed stay at home dad begins venturing out at night. Befriended by a group of petty criminals and strippers, he begins to feel alive. But when he is implicated in a murder, he finds himself indebted to a psychotic gangster and is drawn into a world of violence that threatens his life and his family's safety.
Overdomineering female police detective Jamie McDowell still tries to run her 19-year old only son Peter's life although he is a builder who lives alone. She strongly opposes his engagement to Kelly Shaw, who he doesn't know very long, and forces him to bring her to diner, where Jamie and mother Susan Shaw repeat that mistake. After Kelly provoked her ex-fiancé Ray Rankin in a bar 'to test Peter's love' again, they part in anger. That evening the mothers, who went out together, find Kelly burnt to death in Susan's house; an expert clearly concludes arson. To her horror, Jamie quickly finds the evidence seems to point at one logical suspect: her son Peter...
This gripping documentary follows the trial of Issa Sesay, a leader in Sierra Leone's civil war who stands accused of crimes against humanity. Can the trial of one man uncover the truth of a traumatic past?