It is the late 1970s and criminal defense attorney Harrison J. Walker, better known as Jaywalker for his rebellious tactics, is struggling to build his own practice when he receives a call from a desperate mother. Her son, Darren Kingston, has been arrested for raping five white women in Castle Hill, an area of the Bronx long forgotten by the city.

A young, good-looking black man, Darren is positively identified by four of the victims as the fifth prepares to do the same. Everyone—from the prosecution to the community at large—sees this as an open-and-shut case with solid eyewitness testimony. Everyone, that is, except Jaywalker.

The young attorney looks deep into the crimes, studying both the characters involved and the character of our society. What he finds will haunt him for the rest of his career.