On Dangerous Ground

Eleven years on the job as a NYPD police detective in dealing with criminals on a day in and day out basis has made Jim Wilson a cruel, bitter man, he using excessive force to beat out information from suspects. Warned time and time again that such actions actually hurt their cases in the long run despite Jim believing that he gets results, his superior, Captain Brawley, assigns him to a case in Westham, a remote community upstate, to allow him to "cool off" both figuratively and literally, the latter as it is the middle of winter. Jim, under the direction of Westham's Sheriff Carrey, is to join the posse pursuing a murderer, identity unknown, the victim schoolgirl Sally Brent. Upon his arrival in snowy Westham, Jim finds that Sally's grieving father, Walter Brent, has appointed himself the leader of the posse in wanting to exact vigilante justice, namely he wanting to be the one to pull the trigger to kill the murderer which suits Jim just fine as long as they catch the right man. Jim and Walter are able to track the supposed murderer to, but then lose him at a remote house owned by blind Mary Malden. Managing to have some time alone with Mary, Jim learns that Mary knows more about the murder and murderer than she would initially divulge. In making a human connection with Mary in their individual loneliness, Jim begins to get a different view of this case, one diverging from Walter's outward perspective, and perhaps his view both of his work and his life.