James Stewart reprises his original 1948 Twentieth Century Fox film role as a newspaper reporter P.J McNeal in this true story of a man wrongly convicted of murdering cop John Bundy in Chicago 1932. After eleven years in prison Frank Wieschek's mother placed a small advertisement in the Chicago Times offering $5000 reward for finding the killers of the cop. Mrs Tilly Wieschek has always believed her son was innocent and has worked night and day as a cleaner to raise the money to prove her son is innocent and free her son who always maintained his wrong conviction. 

Reporter P.J. McNeil is not entirely convinced of Wiescheks innocence but agrees to investigate for the sake of a news story. However his investigation leads to the truth being uncovered.