In 1994, David Gale is a successful intellectual and the head of the philosophy department at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also an active member of DeathWatch, an advocacy group campaigning against capital punishment. During a graduation party, Gale encounters Berlin, a graduate student who has been expelled from the school. She seduces Gale while he is drunk. After a night of rough sex, she falsely accuses Gale of rape. Gale is arrested, but the charges are dropped when Berlin mysteriously disappears. His marriage, career, and reputation are all destroyed. Gale also loses custody over his son. As Gale struggles with alcoholism, his close friend and fellow activist Constance Harraway tries to help him recover. Constance is later found raped and murdered. The physical evidence points to Gale, and the killer replicated a torture technique which Gale had mentioned in his written works. Gale is convicted of rape and murder and is sentenced to death. Several years later, the journalist Bitsey Bloom investigates the case shortly before Gale's expected execution. Bloom finds a videotaped record of Constance's death, which reveals that she was not murdered. Constance was dying from terminal leukemia and she committed suicide. The murder was staged. Bloom tries and fails to prevent Gale's execution. Publicized evidence of Constance's suicide later causes a media and political uproar about the miscarriage of justice. But Bloom soon learns that there were further secrets in Gale's story.