Wealthy, brilliant, and meticulous Ted Crawford, an aeronautical engineer in Los Angeles, shoots his wife and entraps
her lover. He signs a confession; at the arraignment, he asserts his rights to represent himself and asks the court to move
immediately to trial. The prosecutor is Willy Beachum, a hotshot who's soon to join a fancy civil-law firm, told by everyone
it's an open and shut case. Crawford sees Beachum's weakness, the hairline fracture of his character: Willy's a winner. The
engineer sets in motion a clockwork crime with all the objects moving in predictable ways
