A Crime on the Bayou is the story of Gary Duncan, a Black teenager from Plaquemines Parish, a swampy strip of land south of New Orleans. In 1966, Duncan tries to break up an argument between white and Black teenagers outside a newly integrated school. He gently lays his hand on a white boy’s arm. The boy recoils like a snake. That night, police burst into Duncan’s trailer and arrest him for assault on a minor. A young Jewish attorney, Richard Sobol, leaves his prestigious D.C. firm to volunteer in New Orleans. With his help, Duncan bravely stands up to a racist legal system powered by a white supremacist boss to challenge his unfair arrest. Their fight goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and their lifelong friendship is forged.

这部电影讲述了1977年路易斯安那州的一起重要法律案件，涉及到一个非洲裔美国人被错误指控强奸的情况。在这起案件中，17岁的Gary Duncan试图保护自己的权利，但却遭到了当时种族歧视的司法系统的不公正对待。这起案件引发了一系列的法律争议，最终成为美国历史上的一个重要里程碑，为后来的民权运动奠定了基础。