When idealistic assistant district attorney Decourcy Ward arrives in Boston, he discovers a place rife with violent criminals emboldened by local law enforcement agencies in which corruption and racism are the norm. Ward forms an unlikely alliance with corrupt-yet-venerated FBI veteran Jackie Rohr, and together they take on a family of armored car robbers from Charlestown in a case that grows to involve, and ultimately subvert, the city's entire criminal justice system.
