Katie Liner, (played by Kellie Martin) is the 18-year-old daughter of Jack Liner, a powerful police officer. At a charity benefit, she meets James "Jimmy" Pettit, a man in his early twenties (played by Ivan Sergei) who initially appears flawless—educated, respectful, polite, popular, and with no police records. Despite the charm, Katie’s father is wary of Jimmy, and he’s not thrilled when he learns Katie is soon engaged. In a short span of time, Katie and Jimmy marry, and she gives birth to a son named James.
Soon after James is born, Jimmy’s veneer of perfection cracks. He begins to show violent behavior, pushing Katie and slapping her in the face. His apologies afterward make Katie forgive him, again and again. Over two years, Katie’s older sister Sharon notices bruises on her skin. Katie admits the truth about Jimmy’s abuse but begs Sharon not to reveal it, promising to tell if the violence happens again. By the time she’s pregnant with a second child, his aggression worsens, and he starts slapping James as well. Desperate, Katie confesses to her mother, Ellen, that she is a victim of domestic violence and that Jimmy isn’t treating her right. Ellen encourages her to leave Jimmy, but he fights to keep her, beating her severely when she tries to escape. When he threatens to shoot her, Katie defends herself by killing him with a shotgun.
Katie is arrested by her father and tells her lawyer, Paul Chambers, that she is guilty, though she still loves her husband. At the hospital, photos reveal the scars and bruises on Katie’s body. Jack learns from Paul that Jimmy had abused Katie daily, helping him understand that she was protecting herself and that the killing was self-defense. He also grapples with the fact that Katie never came to him for help, which could have changed the outcome. Jack contemplates how he should have handled the situation and tries to mend his relationship with Ellen.
During the trial, Katie struggles to prove the severity of the abuse, while Wade Blankenship, Jimmy’s best friend, pursues revenge for the murder. The absence of witnesses who reported the violence and Katie’s own failure to seek police help earlier complicate the defense. Sharon is pressed to answer whether she reported the bruises, and the neighbor Herbert Evans explains that, in his day, a broken marriage was considered “their business.” When Katie testifies, she concedes that she was naive to think unconditional love could stop the abuse but realizes it would never end and that one of them would have to die. (During her testimony, it is shown that Jimmy told her she’d have to kill him and offered her the rifle, but she resisted because she loved him too much. However, when he finally told her, <em>“Yeah, that's what I thought!”</em> and hit her across the head with the butt of the rifle, she walked in and shot him, breaking down crying as she did so.)
The jury returns a verdict of not guilty. After the trial, Jimmy’s parents, who initially wanted Katie imprisoned, apologize for their lack of awareness of the danger their son posed. The film ends a year later with Katie laying a flower on Jimmy’s grave and telling James and her newborn child that they will have a better life.
