Jodie Foster won deserved acclaim for her performance as Sarah Tobias, a hard-living, fiercely independent woman is gang raped in the back of a local bar. She finds herself battling the legal system not once but twice, as she and her attorney, Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis), go after her attackers and the onlookers whose cheering fueled and encouraged the assault. The film is based on a true situation that occurred in New Bedford, Massachusetts.