Eleven-year-old Darnell Cooper, malnourished and uneducated, is plucked by chance from the abusive horrors of a Philadelphia slum by Lionel, a brash, young, black lawyer struggling to find his own identity. Darnell is discovered to be phenomenally intelligent, and he also becomes the best high school basketball player in the country. But Darnell famously spurns the NBA and chooses to attend the University of Pennsylvania. Overnight, he becomes an American icon. Darnell's unparalleled success as a student-athlete culminates when he falls in love with Kelly, a Penn freshman and the daughter of a Philly cop. But when Kelly's dead body turns up on the night she and Darnell first make love, he is charged with her rape and murder.
The District Attorney believes it his duty to seek the death penalty despite doubts that Darnell is capable of murder. Lionel believes Darnell is guilty, but loves the boy too much to allow him to be convicted. Kelly's father only wants revenge. Their fight is not only against each other but against each man's perceptions of race and justice-where Darnell's life hangs in the balance.