 A lawyer trying to cope with his son s accidental death takes on a case where a farmer is charged with booby trapping a watermelon patch with a shotgun which went off and injured a young boy. But in choosing to defend the farmer, he puts himself at odds with the boy s father, an old friend who is politically influential. In dealing with this case, he is forced to confront his own son s death and his wife s slippage into being a virtual recluse.