Hot-shot defence attorney Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) seems to have landed on his feet when he is poached by an international law firm in New York. Lomax is welcomed by the charismatic John Milton (Al Pacino), who seems to take an especially close interest in his young employee's career. Meanwhile, Lomax's wife Mary-Ann (Charlize Theron) suffers a breakdown, believing that she is losing her husband to a dark and powerful force.

Growing up in East Los Angeles' gangland, cousins Miklo (Damian Chapa), Paco (Benjamin Bratt) and Cruz (Jesse Borrego) become more like brothers, forging a strong blood bond. When a simple twist of fate sends their lives veering in separate directions - Paco into the military, Miklo to San Quentin prison, and Cruz to a life of drug addiction - the trio continue to keep touch as they strive to achieve their goals.

Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates) was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt), and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores, the memory of the first murder seemingly confirming her guilt in the second. But when her daughter Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story, the truth about the family's past gradually comes to light.