Hardened New York City homicide detective Emily Eden (Melanie Griffith), daughter of a divorced former cop, and her partner Nick (Jamey Sheridan) attempt to arrest two drug dealers. However, Nick is stabbed by one of the dealers, whom Emily wounds instead of alerting assistance at first. As a result, her superior Lt. Oliver (David Margulies) temporarily takes away her gun. After Nick is hospitalized, eventually heading to recovery, while the dealers have been apprehended, Emily goes undercover to investigate the murder of a Hasidic diamond cutting named Yaakov Klausman (Jake Weber). She questions the family of the Hasidic rebbe (Lee Richardson (actor)), an elderly Holocaust survivor who is revered for his wisdom and compassion toward his fellow Jews. He says to her, "You and I have something in common: We are both intimately familiar with evil. It does something to your Soul (spirit)."