On December 7, 1993, a gunman opened fire in a crowded commuter train on Long Island. This fact-based story focuses on the events that swell around Carolyn McCarthy, a woman whose husband is killed and her 26 year old son is severely wounded in the massacre. The result is she is forced out of her comfortable suburban existence and she becomes an out-spoken crusader against assault weapons. The film shifts from her perspective to the mind of the killer and finally to the media frenzy that surrounds both.