In the 1940's South, an African-American (Phifer) is wrongly accused of the killing a a white store owner. In his defense, his white attorney equates him with a lowly hog, to indicate that he didn't have the sense to know what he was doing. Nevertheless convicted, he is sentenced to die, but his mother (Hall) and aunt (Tyson) asks that the local school teacher (Cheadle) go to his cell each day to try to reaffirm to him that he's not a dumb animal but a man with dignity.