Deep South drama starring Halle Berry in an Oscar-winning performance as Leticia Musgrove, the wife of a man recently executed on Death Row. When she is fired from her job, Leticia starts working at the local diner, where she meets Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton), a former prison warden whose son has recently died. Hank helps Leticia out when her son Tyrell is involved in an accident, and the two soon begin a relationship. But only later does Leticia realise that Hank was the warden who conducted her husband's execution.