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.

Nick Martin, a young street tough, has a change of heart and attempts to stop the gang violence in his neighborhood.

The unintentional shooting by police of a star basketball player has profound personal, political and community repercussions in this acclaimed adaptation of the novel Hog Butcher by Ronald Fair. This was one of the more thoughtful urban dramas produced at the height of the "blaxploitation" craze. Also released under the title Hit the Open Man, it features the screen debut of Laurence Fishburne, who was barely a teenager at the time.