In April 1989, five black and Hispanic teenagers from Harlem were arrested for the brutal assault and rape of a white woman in Central Park. After hours of intense interrogations, the youths confessed and were sentenced to long prison terms.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, along with collaborators David McMahon and Sarah Burns, revisits the crime, with revelatory archive footage and contributions from many involved in the trial, to raise serious issues concerning the criminal investigation and a flawed American justice system.