A knife-scarred victim must identify her assailant beyond a reasonable doubt. Meanwhile the accused is offered a deal if he pleads guilty. Is he as innocent as the victim? Is the justice system guiltier than both?

Television movie remake of the 1960s courtroom drama series, "The Defenders." After the death of his eldest son and his partner in the law firm of Preston and Preston, senior partner, Lawrence Preston enlists his granddaughter, M.J, a former prosecutor, and his other son Don, a law professor, to continue the work of ensuring that every individual accused of a crime is entitled to a proper defense. In this telefilm, a father murders the rapist of his young daughter after the man is released from prison and moves back to his old neighborhood. The Prestons take the case even though the father is unrepentent and unwilling to offer the attorneys any help in finding legally mitigating circumstances for his actions.

A racist provokes four teens into beating a Latino youth to death after one of his fiery speeches on a college campus. The Prestons are first called upon to defend one of the youths who gives testimony against the other three. Then, in a turnaround, the family of the murdered boy hires the Prestons to try to get a conviction against the racist.

The Defenders are a crack team of lawyers dedicated to one principle - the accused is innocent untill proven guilty. This time, they defend a man wrongly convicted of murder.