In streets burning with hatred, corruption and violence, there walks a powder keg with a short fuse called Brennan (Nick Nolte). When Brennan shoots a small-time crook in cold blood, he covers up...

In streets burning with hatred, corruption and violence, there walks a powder keg with a short fuse called Brennan (Nick Nolte). When Brennan shoots a small-time crook in cold blood, he covers up the shooting as self-defense and Assistant D.A. Reilly (Timothy Hutton) is assigned to the investigation. Brennan’s innocence rests on a clean Q & A but innocence is hard to prove when key witnesses become murder victims. Someone is trying to cover for Brennan and may succeed, unless one surviving witness takes the stand: gangster, drug-runner and racketeer Bobby Texador (Armand Assante). Texador, Brennan and Reilly are as far apart as you can get when it comes to ideals – but when it comes to murder, invisible threads are drawing them together, tightening a noose around somebody’s neck – but whose?