Lawson Russell is a prominent New Orleans defense attorney who gives it all up to write his great novel. But several months later, he has only written six pages and has severe writers block. Given a manuscript by a fellow writer, he realizes that his elderly friend has written a great thriller; a tense and explosive account of five murders. But when Lawson passes the work off as his own, he finds himself accused of the real life murders that are at the heart of the book. Realising that he has been set up, he must return to the court room once more, this time as the accused.