作为初出茅庐的律师新手，米奇（汤姆·克鲁斯 Tom Cruise 饰）幸运的得到了一家知名律师事务所的垂青，该事务所不仅在职位上十分看重米奇，更是在经济方面给予了米奇和其妻子艾比（珍妮·特里普里霍恩 Jeanne Tripplehorn 饰）极大的帮助。 个性耿直善良又极富正义感的米奇在高兴之余决定在律师行业里大展拳脚，但随着时间的推移，米奇发现，这个事务所所经营的案件并非表面上所看到的那么简单，除了离奇死亡的律师外，事务所更是和黑道有着千丝万缕的非法关联。年轻的米奇站在了人生的十字路口上，是顺从于事务所的安排与其同流合污，还是勇敢的站出来，冒着死亡的风险协助警察调查事务所的底细？米奇心中已经有了答案。
Young up-and-coming Harvard law grad Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) is being courted by major law firms across the country, including Chicago, New York & Los Angeles. When he decides on a small but prosperous firm in Memphis, TN, headed up by Oliver Lambert (Hal Holbrook) and Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman), Mitch and his wife Abigail (Jeanne Tripplehorn) are thrilled. But within weeks of joining the firm, 2 lawyers are savagely murdered when their boat blows up under suspicious circumstances. Mitch is soon approached by FBI agents and the U.S. Department of Justice who inform him that the law firm he works for is heavily involved in the criminal enterprises of a mob family in Chicago. In addition he is told that many young lawyers have been killed while employed by the firm. Mitch soon discovers that the firm has indeed been involved in corruption, racketeering, mail fraud, homicide, and grossly over-billing clients. Now, facing prosecution himself - or death from the firm security enforcers - Mitch & Abigail concoct a plan to hand over files exposing the criminal behavior of the firm to the DOJ and FBI. But the sinister security agents of the firm, headed by William Devasher (Wilford Brimley) are also in pursuit of McDeere, and they will stop at nothing to silence McDeere and protect their interests.
