Criminal defense lawyers must make their peace with one harsh fact of life: most of their clients are guilty.
But when William Tucker, a celebrated and self-centered star college football player, is suddenly arrested and charged with the brutal rape and murder of a college coed two years before, his estranged father, Frank Tucker, a drunken, broken-down, beach-bum ex-criminal defense lawyer, cannot believe his son is guilty. No father can. So he must find a way to sober up and save his son from the death penalty sought by an ambitious district attorney. And father and son learn that only three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and a father's love for his son.