Hank Tobin had it all: a popular column in a New York newspaper, a Pulitzer prize, and wealth that enabled him to live his boyhood dreams. But his world is shattered when his son - himself an aspiring journalist - follows an anonymous tip to a can't-miss front-page story: the firebombing of a Brooklyn mosque. Hank's son is accused of the crime, arrested, and thrown into prison. Hank soon discovers that his son was framed by a man who has been waiting a decade to have his revenge.

Sitting in a seedy New York bar ten years earlier, Hank overheard a janitor bragging that his son torched the home of a minority family to keep the neighborhood white. Hank's story of the event made the front page. The boy spent ten years in prison and the family was destroyed - a minor event in the life of the columnist, a life-altering event for the janitor and his family.

Hank's life is in ruins. Divorced from his wife - whom he desperately wants back - and estranged by his daughter, Hank has lost his reputation, his career, and his family. To save his son from a long prison sentence, Hank must confront the vengeful man whose life he once carelessly destroyed.