This new film details the remarkable courtroom drama that surrounded the infamous Rivonia Trial of 1963 which saw Nelson Mandela and his fellow Rivonia Trialists facing the possibility of death or life imprisonment after being tried for their attempts to end the rule of the apartheid state. The film is told from the point of view of the tenacious Afrikaans lawyer Bram Fischer, himself a covert anti-apartheid activist and prominent communist party member, who represented the Rivonia trialists in their Pretoria trial.

Filmed on location in South Africa (including inside the very same courtroom where the trial took place) and starring an all-South African cast the film brings to life the gripping dynamics and tense emotions faced both inside the courtroom and inside Fischer's personal life. Following the trial, Fischer continued to remain active in the underground anti-apartheid movement and was himself put on trial in 1966 for conspiracy to overthrow the government. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died a prisoner in 1975 from complications relating to untreated cancer.