RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT

Christine Paley (Lea Thompson) is a bright and eager police rookie who, much to her chagrin, is assigned to a desk job her first day of duty. Under the supervision of tough-but-likable Lieutenant Mike Brosloe (Robert Loggia), Christine is abruptly introduced to the pathos, human tragedy and sometimes horror of the cases that pass through a police booking room.

Her first night on the job, Christine processes a DUI driver charged with vehicular manslaughter (Patrick Dempsey); a pistol-packing pizza delivery driver (Amanda Plummer); a gentle widower who helped his dying wife commit suicide (Carl Reiner); a colourful cross-dresser accused of shoplifting (Fisher Stevens); and a raving husband (Judge Reinhold) hell-bent on killing a popular talkshow host for influencing his newly liberated wife (Colleen Camp).

Christine also encounters a young black documentary filmmaker (LL Cool J) who has infiltrated a Ku Klux Klan march to film it secretly, and a young school teacher with AIDS (Laura San Giacomo) who stages a bloody protest. All the while, the Lieutenant tells Christine the tale of Johnny Benjamin (Christopher Lloyd), a homeless vagrant he encountered in his career who deeply affected his life.

The individual stories are woven into a many-textured tapestry of lives and events. And Christine learns what we all must: between black and white lie endless shades of grey, and everyone has a story as unique and real as the world we live in.