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Julia Roberts plays Darby Shaw, a beautiful and spirited New Orleans law student who is romantically involved with her professor, Thomas Callahan. The plot is set in motion by the baffling murders of two Supreme Court justices. One, a curmudgeonly liberal modeled after William O. Douglas, is aged and infirm, holding onto his seat only until the next Democratic President comes to office. The other, a closeted gay man (Ralph Cosham), is a Republican appointee with no discernible legal philosophy except that, like the other murdered judge, he consistently voted pro-environmentalist. Running with that slim clue, Roberts puts together a brief based on the theory that the culprit could be a reclusive, shadowy oil millionaire who is battling environmental lawsuits in order to tap a billion-dollar oil reserve in the fragile an FBI legal analyst. Like Shepard, Heard, and even Roberts herself, FBI director Denton Voyles doesn't take the brief too seriously, but he finds it convenient leverage to use against being scape goated in the assinations by the sitting President, a feeble-minded Republican who took major contributions from the oilman.
When Shepard is killed with a car bomb meant for Roberts,
she begins taking the brief very seriously, as does Washington
Herald reporter Gray Grantham, whom Roberts seeks out because
Shepard was a fan of his work. As the bodies pile up around them
and as they dodge occasional attempts on their lives, Roberts and
Washington meticulously piece together the evidence to prove
Roberts's hypothesis. Roberts escapes to an undisclosed Caribbean
location where she can safely watch Washington sing her praises
on nationwide TV as the evil men are brought to justice.