Chris Maurer is killed the day after his 21st birthday and his grieving mother, Angela Maurer, is unable to come to grips with that fact. She is taken advantage of by a self-interested journalist who only cares about getting a front-page story and she is completely dissatisfied with the way the police are handling the case. A local shopkeeper tries to help her through these trying times, but to no avail. The police arrest Chris' friend Ryan McGuinness, after they learn Chris may have spent the night with Ryan's girlfriend but Chris also had a testy relationship with his brother-in-law. The Good Samaritan who found Chris bloodied and beaten on the sidewalk agrees to participate in a reconstruction of the crime. In the end, a simple slip of the tongue reveals the identity of the killer and then the motive for the murder.