After a Black teenager, Michael Donald, is found lynched in Mobile, Alabama in 1981, and local law enforcement fails to apprehend the killers, Donald's mother Beulah Mae and Black activists fight for an investigation into the local Klan chapter, which they believe is responsible for the murder.

After Beulah Mae Donald's activism and widespread community pressure re-energizes her son's case, federal and local investigators race to find Mobile's Klan chapter and apprehend Michael Donald's murderers.

The Donald family is put at risk when the Mobile District Attorney charges Henry Hays with the capital murder of Michael Donald.