A caring nun named Sister Helen Prejean receives a desperate letter from Matthew Poncelot, a death row inmate trying to find help to avoid execution for murder. She visits Matthew, despite the best...

A caring nun named Sister Helen Prejean receives a desperate letter from Matthew Poncelot, a death row inmate trying to find help to avoid execution for murder. She visits Matthew, despite the best efforts of friends and clergy to dissuade her interaction. Upon their first meeting, she is greeted by his outer shell, the hardened criminal that he is branded. After a few visits, his facade melts, and she reaches the soul of a convicted murderer, and does just what he asks her to do from day one, she saves his life. Not in the physical sense, for Matthew, in a drug induced haze, happened upon two young lovers in the woods one night, and murdered them. He is set to pay for that sin with his own life. Sister Helen takes Matthew to a place he has never been before, out of the shadows, and into the light of God's love, promising to take the final journey by his side, and encouraging him to take responsibility for his actions on that night. From the slain teen's parents, to the community that admonishes Sister Helen for reaching out to a murderer, all sides are examined.