South Africa, 1976. A black boy and white boy, two friends, are happily playing-soccer, then rugby--on a beautifully manicured lawn. Johan (Rowen Elmes) is an adolescent, the son of Benjamin Du Toit, an Afrikaner schoolteacher. Jonathan Ngubene (Bekhithemba Mpofu), about the same age as Johan, is the son of Du Toit's gardener, Gordon.Outside a liquor shop in Soweto, a crowd of men are drinking from large plastic pitchers. A young man in a beret leaps on to a table and reminds those in the crowd that the beer they are drinking buys the bullets that kill their children. He is shouted down by the crowd. Nearby Jonathan is playing soccer in the street. Police pull up and begin beating young men and boys with billy clubs. They shove Jonathan and other young men into a police van.Benjamin Du Toit (Donald Sutherland)--a history teacher and former rugby player--and his wife Susan (Janet Suzman), attend one of Johan's rugby matches. As Du Toit and Susan are leaving the game, they meet Gordon (Winston Ntshona). Gordon thanks Du Toit for his financial help in educating Jonathan. 'Emily and me will always thank you.'Du Toit is in his garden enjoying a family gathering. Gordon brings Jonathan to 'Mr. Ben.' In the garage Gordon shows Du Toit and Johan Jonathan's buttocks, lacerated and bloodied from a whipping. Gordon asks Mr. Ben to hire a lawyer-he doesn't want Jonathan to have a police record. Du Toit replies 'it's a minor matter, let it go' and instructs Gordon to put iodine on the wounds. Gordon replies it is not the wounds on his son's body that he is afraid of, but those in his heart. Du Toit replies, 'there's nothing to be done.' After Gordon and Jonathan leave, Johan says, 'The cuts look terrible, Pa.' Du Toit replies: 'he must have done something.'Du Toit returns to his family in the garden. His daughter Suzette (Susannah Harker) asks what happened. Jonathan received a caning. 'Bloody savages,' says Suzette's husband. 'The only language they understand is force.' 'I thought the idea was to give them their own homeland,' Suzette adds. 'Let them live with their own kind. No conflict then. Everybody's happy.'That night Jonathan pleads with his father to not go to school the following day. He doesn't want to learn Afrikaans--where will that get him? He says to his father: We know you are a wise man, people ask your advice, you should be a lawyer, but what are you?Black school children take part in a protest march. Police block the streets and order them to disperse. The children respond by singing the liberation hymn, 'Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika', 'Lord, Bless Africa.' The police reply with warnings and threats of 'action.' The children continue singing. The police teargas the protesters. Some children hurl smoking canisters back at the police. Police open with live ammunition, shooting several students in the chest. Children flee. Police give chase, firing at the running children, shooting one in the back, then another, and another. Jonathan, charging through backyards and alleyways, stops to help a young girl crying over the body of her dead sister. Gordon searches for Jonathan. A girl who was at the march tells him that the police took Jonathan away. At Gordon's home, Stanley (Zakes Mokae), Gordon's friend, enters. He's been driving children to the hospital all day-'one even died in the car.' Stanley, Gordon, and Gordon's wife Emily (Thoko Ntshinga), continue searching for Jonathan-first at the police station then at the morgue, where children's bodies are laid out, uncovered, on the floor, and on storage racks.Gordon tells Du Toit that Jonathan has been arrested and has disappeared. Du Toit vows to find out what he can about Jonathan's disappearance. He learns from a lawyer, Ian McKenzie, Jonathan had died-officially, 'in the rioting.' He does not know where the body was buried. Gordon vows to find out.In an alleyway near the police detention center, Gordon shows passersby a picture of Jonathan. Has anyone seen his son? One man says he did. That night Gordon brings a black lawyer and activist, Julius (John Kani), to his home to interview the witness. There's a knock on the door. A young boy enters, both arms bandaged from the wrist to above the elbows. He had been questioned and heard Jonathan's screams in the adjoining room. Jonathan was taken to the hospital and never seen again. Julius transcribes the testimonies.Gordon and his family are asleep. The police break down their front door and confiscate the notes the lawyer had taken. One of the black men whom Gordon had questioned about Jonathan's disappearance earlier, handcuffs Gordon and takes him away.Emily visits Du Toit at his school. Gordon has been arrested. Du Toit visits the police and speaks with Col. Viljoen (Gerard Thoolen). Also present is Captain Stolz (Jürgen Prochnow) who asks Du Toit for an autograph for his son, a soccer player. Du Toit obliges, and Stolz leaves. The colonel questions Du Toit about Gordon. Du Toit vouches for Gordon's character. The colonel 'assures' Du Toit that if Gordon is innocent, he will be released soon. The two men shake hands. Du Toit asks for a final favor--for Emily to bring a clean set of clothes for her husband. The colonel agrees.Gordon is being tortured. His face is beaten and bloodied. Captain Stolz demands to know who told Gordon to collect the statements regarding Jonathan's disappearance. Gordon responds: 'I want my son's body.' The torture continues.Stanley and Emily visit the Du Toit's home. Emily holds three of Gordon's teeth in the palm of her hand--they were in the pocket of Gordon's dirty clothes. Du Toit calls his lawyer, Ian McKenzie, who agrees to look into what happened to Gordon. Du Toit finishes the call. 'We must not give up hope, Emily.' 'Hope is a white word,' Stanley replies.Gordon continues to be tortured-he is hanging by from a rack by his ankles and his wrists 'Are you ready to fly?' Stolz asks. A black messenger stumbles into the interrogation room. Stolz orders him to never enter the interrogation room without knocking: 'Yes, captain. Yes, captain.'Stanley is at the Du Toit home with news from Emily: Gordon is dead. The authorities said he committed suicide. Du Toit is determined to see Gordon's body. Stanley tells him to stay out of it, but Du Toit threatens to drive himself to Soweto. Stanley relents and drives to the township with Du Toit hidden in the back seat. At the funeral home, Gordon lies in his casket-eyes swollen shut. His shirt is opened; scars are revealed. A newspaper reporter, Melanie Bruwer (Susan Sarandon), arrives at the funeral home and is acknowledged by Stanley. She asks to speak with Du Toit.Stanley tells Du Toit that Emily wants an inquest into Gordon's death. Du Toit visits McKenzie (Marlon Brando): he wants justice for Gordon Ngubene. McKenzie responds: 'Justice and the law...I suppose they can be described as distant cousins, and here in South Africa, they are simply not on speaking terms at all.' As far as the Ngubene case is concerned, he advises Du Toit to 'just give it up.' When Du Toit promises to find another lawyer, McKenzie agrees to take the case.The inquest into Gordon Ngubene's death. The courtroom is segregated by race: blacks on one side, whites on the other. McKenzie presents Gordon's teeth to the doctor who extracted them, Dr. Herzog (Paul Brooke). McKenzie questions the doctor, who testifies that he had learned from Captain Stoltz that Gordon Ngubene complained of a toothache. No, there was nothing 'noteworthy' about Gordon's appearance...he could not recall if he had used an anesthetic when he extracted the teeth...he does not recall who ordered the teeth pulled...he does recall, however, what day it is...to the 'relief' of McKenzie, who was afraid he had lost complete control of his 'faculties.' Stolz takes the stand. He testifies that Gordon Ngubene was arrested for being in possession of 'incriminating' documents. Ngubene was found hanging by a rope, tied to the window bars. A post-mortem was conducted by a police doctor. McKenzie reminds him a post-mortem was also conducted for the Ngubene family--by a doctor who had since been 'detained': Dr. Hassiem. McKenzie can present a graphologist who will testify that Dr. Hassiem's signature was forged on the official police autopsy report. The defense lawyer claims he can present several graphologists who will testify that it was not. He calls his final witness and reads his statement, which claims Gordon was in good health prior to his death. The court waits for the witness-a young man supposedly detained with Gordon--for confirmation. 'No! I signed because Captain Stolz forced me to!' He raises his shirt and reveals his back crisscrossed with lacerations. 'This is what he did to me!' McKenzie recalls Stolz to the stand and shows him photographs of Ngubene's beaten body. How does Stolz account for the lacerations across his front and back? He must have hit the bars when he tried to jump out the window, Stolz replies. 'He behaved like a wild animal.' McKenzie submits more photographs-photographs showing 'his jaw, broken; his nose, broken; his cheekbone, crushed; his eye hanging out of its socket and dangling on the crushed cheekbone; and marks and evidence of excessive burns on his genitals'-and all that while this man was trying to get out of a window?'The black members of the audience erupt in rage-yelling, screaming--and are removed from the courtroom. The magistrate responds: 'Now, Mr. McKenzie. What are you trying to prove with this idiotic recitation?' 'What I am...trying to prove with this 'idiotic' recitation, sir, is the fact that it was not Gordon Ngubene, but Captain Stolz, who behaved like a 'wild animal'.'The Ngubene's case is dismissed.The crowd leaves the courthouse. The white man, Benjamin Du Toit, fights through the crowd to reach the black woman, Emily Ngubene, and embraces her. Cameras are flashing. The crowd spills into the streets. The black Africans yell 'Justice! Justice! Justice!' The police respond with billy clubs. Du Toit is caught in the pandemonium and escapes with the reporter, Melanie Bruwer. At Melanie's home, Du Toit comes to terms with the reality of black life in South Africa. 'I've been too naive for too long.' Melanie offers him a glass of brandy: 'Welcome to South Africa, Ben Du Toit.'A picture of Du Tout embracing Emily Ngubene appears on the front page of a local newspaper. Suzette is enraged . 'My God, Pa. How could you let it go this far? You and a kaffir woman---you look like lovers.'Colleagues at the school shun Du Toit. His wife Susan becomes distant. Du Toit informs her that 'we'-'Emily and me'--are going to file a civil suit against the police. Susan asks, 'for what?' Let it go. This is not your fight. She'd heard what the police did...'I'm not saying it was right. But don't you think the blacks wouldn't do the same to us, and worse, if they had half a chance? ...We have to survive, and you must choose your own people.'Du Toit, Emily, Stanley and a black minister organize the suit against the police. They plan to search for witnesses who saw Gordon and Jonathan arrested or in custody, and to collect their signed statements, affidavits.Stanley hands Du Toit the first affidavit. Du Toit hides it in a secret compartment in a home-made lock-box in his garage. Julius, the activist and lawyer, and Stanley collect more affidavits-from the girl Jonathan helped the day he was arrested; from a nurse at the hospital where Jonathan was taken; the undertaker at the funeral home. The messenger who stumbled into the interrogation room tells Stanley and Du Toit that he saw Gordon being tortured, but he won't sign an affidavit-it would be suicide. That night Captain Stolz shoots him point blank in the chest in the doorway of his house.Stolz and his men search Du Toit's home, remove several documents, and place him under surveillance. The police question Johan at school; afterwards, Johan is attacked by schoolmates. Du Toit demands the colonel and captain leave his family alone.Du Toit comforts Johan. Johan says he knows what the police did to Gordon and Jonathan was wrong. 'Don't stop, Pa. Please, I don't want you to give up.'Emily and her children are given four weeks to leave their home.Du Toit visits the doctor who conducted the autopsy for the Ngubene family, Dr. Hassiem (Charles Pillai), who is recently released from detention. Dr. Hassiem gives him the genuine report. He can also provide the name of the young man who was arrested with Jonathan: Wellington, who saw everything. Wellington is in Zambia. Du Toit passes the information on to Melanie. 'With Wellington's statement, we can nail Stolz to the wall.' Melanie volunteers to go to Zambia.It's Christmas time. Du Toit is called to the headmaster's office and is fired. Johan is expelled. 'We don't need traitors here,' says the headmaster. Du Toit, on his way out the door, turns and slaps him in the face.It's a dour Christmas party at the Du Toit's household. As they are opening their Christmas presents, a drunken Stanley barges in. He and Du Toit struggle and crash to the floor. Stanley is in tears: 'Emily has been killed.' He tells Du Toit and Johan Emily was beaten by the police as she tried to prevent her children from being taken away. Susan re-enters the room. 'What a pretty picture: a drunken kaffir and an Afrikaner traitor. You deserve each other.' She moves out of the house.Du Toit and Johan are in the garage. Du Toit shows Johan his lock-box and the hidden compartment where the affidavits are hidden. From a distance, Suzette sees the hiding place.Captain Stolz returns the papers the police seized when they searched Du Toit's house. Du Toit signs for them. Stolz warns: 'There's a line you should not cross. I'd like to convince you of this.' That night Du Toit and Johan are sitting in the living room watching television. Three gunshots shatter the quiet of the evening. Du Toit throws Johan to the floor and protects him with his body.Du Toit visits Melanie. Her newspaper must publish the affidavits; there is no time for a lawsuit. All his 'references have switched.' Nothing is the same anymore.A bomb rips apart the garage where the lock-box is hidden. Thunderstruck, Du Toit examines the remains. The lock-box is destroyed. Johan runs into the house and returns with the affidavits. Suzette saw their hiding place, so he moved the documents.On her way back from Zambia, Melanie is taken into custody and deported from South Africa--but she has already passed along Wellington's affidavit to Stanley through an intermediary.Stanley brings Wellington's statement to Du Toit. They make plans to deliver all the affidavits to the newspaper that night. 'Not you, man,' Stanley says, 'you know Stolz will be on your ass every minute.' Du Toit is aware of that. He'll be the decoy.Du Toit calls Suzette: there was a break-in at the garage. They were looking for 'some things' I had hidden there, but they didn't find them. 'Why don't I look after them,' Suzette says.Du Toit meets Suzette at a restaurant that evening and slips her a large envelope. As Suzette leaves, a tear rolls down Du Toit's cheek. It's raining. Suzette hands Stolz the envelope, who opens it in his car. There is the receipt Du Toit signed when Stolz returned his documents. On the back is printed: 'No one can be free until all are free. Benjamin Du Toit.'At the same time, Johan bicycles in the driving night rain to the newspaper editor and delivers the real affidavits.Benjamin Du Toit leaves the restaurant. As he crosses the street Stolz's car appears. The car accelerates. Du Toit is illuminated in the glare of the headlights and is hit at full speed. He's launched over the roof and on to the road. Stolz accelerates backwards and bounces over the body, changes gears, and runs over him a third time, killing him.A new day. Stolz leaves his home and loads a sports bag into the trunk of his car. He turns. Across the street, behind the wheel of his car, Stanley is waiting. Their eyes lock. Images of Stolz's victims flash across the screen: Jonathan. Gordon. Emily. Du Toit. Stanley levels his revolver and fires a single round into Stolz's chest--and drives away.The newspaper publishes the affidavits.