In 1998, a high-school teenage girl named Nicole Yarber is kidnapped, raped, and strangled to death. Her body is buried near Joplin, Missouri. What follows is the wrongful arrest of a black high-school football star named Donté Drumm.

As Donté is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit, the real murderer watches from the sidelines. He happens to be a man named Travis Boyette. Travis, though surprised by the erroneous conclusions drawn by the police, is nonetheless too happy to let someone else take the fall for his crime.

Nine years later, Travis is out on parole in Kansas after serving time for a different crime. He learns that Donté is headed for the death row in four days time. In an attack of conscience, even though late, Travis decides to confess to his crime and save Donté from certain death. However, convincing the jury members of one man’s innocence when they are already assured of his crime promises to be a tall order. Donté must be destined to die after all.