Mathias Lee Whitlock (Denzel Washington) is the police chief of Banyan Keys, a small town outside of Miami. He still loves his wife and fellow police officer, Alex Diaz-Whitlock (Eva Mendez), but now she wants a divorce.. Chief Whitlock is having an affair with another woman, Ann Merai Harrison (Sanaa Lathan), and when he learns that she has terminal cancer and does not have long to live, he tries to save her by foolishly giving to her $450,000 cash kept at the police station by the DEA.
When Ann and her husband are killed in a fire, all evidence points to Chief Whitlock. Now he must try to retrieve the money, clear his name and save his career, and he must do all these before any one knows what he had done.
