Producers were Alliance Atlantis Communications, with the assistance/participation of CTV and Cosmic Entertainment, with support from the Cdn.

In 1998, a young gay man by the name of Matthew Shepard (Shane Meier) was robbed, viciously beaten and left tied to a fence to die.

This film recounts the events after the conviction of the two men responsible for this hate-motivated murder.

Matthew's parents, though satisfied by the conviction, are finding the sentencing phase of the trial more difficult.

The parents initially want to request the death penalty for their son's murderers, but the mother, Judy Shepard (Stockard Channing), starts to reconsider.