The script is based on a real life miscarriage of justice that is part of Australian history. It is 1958 in conservative Adelaide, a city that prides itself on it's peaceful, well-bred qualities. A young lawyer, David O'Sullivan, excitable and charming, is given the news that he has drawn a 'lottery prize' - a legal aid case for an aborigine who has been arrested for the rape and murder of an eight year old girl in the far west desert town of Ceduna. O'Sullivan soon concludes that the aborigine has been framed by the local police and decides he must take a stand.