Chad Wheeler, an arrogant, self-centered associate in a large Portland law firm, disobeys the orders of his father, a senior partner in the same firm, and commits a terrible blunder in a multi-million dollar law suit. Fired from his big-city job and disinherited from his father's will, he is sent in disgrace to work as a public defender in a small Oregon town, where he represents a retarded man who is facing the death penalty for the brutal murder of a college co-ed.