Recounts the case of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two wealthy college students who kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924. The murder was shocking enough, their motive more so: Leopold and Loeb had planned to abduct and kill a child at random to prove they were smart enough to get away with it. Their lawyer Clarence Darrow summoned experts to show that the murderers had been shaped by childhood trauma and physical defects, and that it was society and its barbaric death penalty that deserved to be put on trial. Set in 1920s Chicago (a city of gin joints, gangsters, and political corruption), this film tells a story that set off a national debate about morality, individual responsibility, and capital punishment.