Three convicts and maximum security prison escapees: Ted Handy (Kim Coates), Shephard Wilcox (Gary Basaraba), and Ray Bonner (James Villemaire) rob a bank for over two million dollars. As they are being pursued by the police, they encounter a school bus full of deaf children. Seeing them as their best bargaining chip with the police, the trio takes the children hostage and moves them to an upstate New York slaughterhouse. The children’s only hope lies in John Potter (James Garner), a federal agent who carries the baggage of a botched hostage negotiation. If the children and their teacher are to survive, Potter must exercise his demons and outwit the kidnappers.