She writes for a leftist magazine and is beginning to make a name for herself when she comes across the story of nine young black men who is being tried for the rape of two young white, less than virtuous, women. Alice begs and gets the approval from her editor to travel to Alabama to cover the story. Soon after arriving in Scottsboro, Alabama, Alice begins to form a relationship with one of the accusers, Ruby Bates. The novel narrated by Alice and Ruby, mostly Alice, covers the trials, the appeals and blatant injustice that destroyed the lives of nine men simply because of a lie, not even a good lie, but a powerful one rooted in America's greatest sin’racism.