Slowed by age and failing eyesight, crack baseball scout Gus Lobel takes his grown daughter along as he checks out the final prospect of his career. Along the way, the two renew their bond, and she catches the eye of a young player-turned-scout.

A highly respected and revered baseball coach has been accused by a female student of conducting some kind of research that borders on sexual molestation. When her parents decide to report him to the authorities. They are held in contempt, because the community can't believe that this wonderful man could do the things that they are accusing him of.

In 1930s Alabama, nine young black men are accused of raping two white women. The judge in the case, unlike the rest of the town, comes to believe that the boys are innocent and, against all advice from his friends and family, sets them free, which turns the entire community against him.