Ex-New York Detective Lieutenant Sam Jenkins takes the job of chief at a small Tennessee police department and immediately gets  tossed into the nightmare of a murder investigation.

The widow and her family won't cooperate. Politicians push to reassign the case to the state bureau of investigation. The former police chief warns Sam to back off.

 Letting the state detectives do all the work would make sense, but Sam's friend becomes the prime suspect. Jenkins turns common police practice on its ear to insure an innocent man doesn't fall prey to an imperfect system and the killer receives appropriate justice.