Two New York City cops investigate a drug-smuggling ring that they believe is run by New York-based foreign diplomats.

Wallace a wealthy landowner in Meriwether County, Georgia, has virtually unlimited power in the county, including having the sheriff under his control. When he murders a share cropper he thinks that he is powerful enough to get away with it. Because the act of murder took place in Coweta County, it is under the jurisdiction of the Coweta County sheriff who hunts the murderer without trepidation.

Based on the real-life ordeal of Baltimore priest Bernard Pagano, who was accused of several armed robberies in the late Seventies.