Gere plays Jack Moore, a sharp entertainment lawyer who travels to Asia to broker a multi-million dollar television deal. That night, while celebrating his success, he meets and seduces a beautiful model... only to wake up the next morning covered with her blood and accused of her brutal rape and murder. Charged with a crime he didn't commit, in a country with a legal system with no presumption of innocence, Jack finds himself facing execution. His young court-appointed lawyer (Asian stage and screen actress Bai Ling) at first recommends he plead guilty for leniency, but soon uncovers proof that changes her mind. In a race that will test all of his ingenuity and courage, Moore puts together pieces of a malevolent puzzle, as the clock on his own life ticks away.