Paul Lamont is a 36-year-old Haitian-American corrections officer at the Brooklyn King's County House of Detention. An aspiring law student, Paul, who lives a culturally bankrupt existence--is a man caught between two worlds. He sees the human side of the prisoners he watches over, just as he sees the violent and brutal nature of his fellow officers. The pressures of his job, including the threat of violence, unwanted overtime, and peer pressure have taken a heavy toll on his marriage to Angela, a middle school teacher who has been his wife for five years. His marriage is already in trouble when he bails Jean Baptiste, a mysterious Haitian, out of jail, convinced that Baptiste has been wrongly accused of rape. Insinuating himself into Lamont's life, Baptiste leads his benefactor on an unimaginable journey of self-discovery as his presence forces Paul to confront his misgivings about his own Hatian culture head-on.