Around Christmas, a United States Supreme Court Justice commits suicide, for which no explanation or context is given. We see the justice making a tape recording and then shooting himself. Shortly thereafter, the body of Elizabeth Quinn, a file clerk at the United States Department of Justice, is found floating in the Potomac River, and Carl Wayne Anderson (Liam Neeson), a homeless, deaf-mute Vietnam veteran, is arrested for the crime, based almost entirely on the fact that he was seen sleeping in Quinn's car the night of her murder. Kathleen Riley (Cher) is the beleaguered D.C. public defender assigned to represent Anderson.