Dee Roberts (Nicole Beharie), a young African-American, is living in a tiny Texas town. She is single and a mother of four children. One day, following a crack down led by the local district attorney (Michael O'Keefe) on a drug racket and the charge of being a drug dealer, Dee is arrested and put in the women`s county prison. Now, she is left with two choices: either to admit the guilt and return home with the stigma as an offender, or face the trial. Disregarding the pleas of her mother Alma Roberts (Alfre Woodard) she decides to fight, jointly with an ACLU lawyer David Cohen (Tim Blake Nelson) and ex-narcotics officer Sam Conroy (Will Patton)