Wichita policeman, Evan Stark, goes to Las Vegas in search of his missing sister, Laura.

Loosely based on the life of Jimmy Hoffa, this traces the rise of Tommy Vanda (Joe Don Baker) from a Chicago dock worker to an influential labor leader who, like Hoffa, finds himself behind bars in a federal prison, and not long after, taken for a ride by shady men never to be seen again.

The real-life account of an illiterate, deaf-and-mute, black youth who was accused of murdering a prostitute, and the relationship that developed between him and his court-appointed attorney, who also was deaf, and the events leading up to his precedent-setting trial.

Police officer Patty Butler, alias "Chicklet," is the live-in girlfriend of Thomas 'Stick' Henderson to gather evidence. Detective Bo Lockley is instructed to try to find her, not knowing she's also a cop.