Six days before jury selection, Mary is pulled from the bench during a midmorning recess. A bailiff informs her that the County Commission urgently needs to see her. In the commissioners’ office, she finds three commissioners along with DA Reeves and Sheriff Owens.

The men ask Mary to reconsider sequestering the jury for the abortion trial, citing the financial burden on the county. Mary insists that her decision is final and admonishes Reeves for discussing the case without Defense Attorney Meyers present. Reeves argues that sequestration will unfairly limit the jury pool by excluding people with demanding responsibilities.

Mary insists that, given the high-profile nature of the case and recent violence, sequestration is necessary to prevent jury contamination. Through the window, they observe protestors burning an American flag. When a commissioner orders arrests, Mary cites Supreme Court precedent protecting flag burning as political speech. When a fight breaks out outside, Mary notes that violence isn’t protected and concludes that the incident reaffirms her sequestration decision.

Three days before jury selection, Mary has her monthly get-together with Loucilla at her farm. Mary admits that the case is getting to her and confides a long-held secret: At age 15, she was raped by a tenant farmer on a neighboring property. The man was never prosecuted because Mary waited weeks before telling anyone, leaving no physical evidence. When the sheriff questioned the man, he denied it, and the matter was dropped.

As they drink whiskey, Loucilla correctly deduces that Mary sees her 15-year-old self in Nova and suggests that she should recuse herself. Mary vehemently refuses, insisting that she’s the only one she trusts to handle the case fairly.

On Monday morning, jury selection begins. Reeves and Lindquist represent the prosecution, and Meyers represents the defendant, Bria. The courtroom is packed with summoned prospective jurors.

Mary addresses the panel and walks among the spectators to put them at ease before beginning questioning. Several prospective jurors are identified as knowing Reeves, including a cousin and members of his prayer group. When asked if anyone knows the defendant, dozens raise their hands.

Mary questions juror number 17, whose late wife was Bria’s patient. He expresses doubt about his impartiality because Bria was so good to his wife. Mary questions him further at the bench but delays excusing him to prevent a mass exodus.

Mary finds the jury-selection process exhausting, as potential jurors are either desperate to be excused or eager to serve with preconceived biases. At lunch recess, Nellie arrives unannounced with a camera crew for a campaign photo shoot for Mary’s reelection campaign.

Nellie persuades Mary to proceed, arguing that the timing is fortuitous since the crew is already at the courthouse. After setting up and doing Mary’s hair and makeup, the director hands her a script with a “tough on crime” tag line (288). Mary rejects the tag line as inaccurate. The director urges her to use the script to win reelection and secure the Chamber of Commerce's support. Mary tears the script in half and returns to her chambers.

After three days of questioning, a panel of 28 prospective jurors is deemed competent, and the prosecution and defense each begin using their seven peremptory strikes. Reeves strikes a young, college-educated woman who leans pro-choice; Meyers strikes a man who appears hostile to the defense. The process continues until 12 jurors and two alternates remain.

Mary administers the oath and, noting the jury’s exhaustion, gives them a key instruction: They must not separate at any time during sequestration. She orders two sheriff’s deputies, including one female deputy, to escort the jurors everywhere until the trial ends.

As court concludes, Bria looks up at Mary, who feels a wave of sympathy for her. Mary quickly retreats to her chambers, conscious that she can’t show favoritism.

After court, Reverend Erskine approaches Mary and questions how she can be impartial, alluding to a secret she once shared with him. Years earlier, at the end of law school, Mary had an abortion and confided in Erskine. Instead of offering pastoral counsel, he condemned her. Now, he frames the trial as an opportunity for Mary to atone. He tells her that her Saturday charity work isn’t enough to compensate for her “sin.”

Enraged, Mary reveals that she was raped at 15 and was vulnerable when she came to him for counsel. His condemnation exacerbated her distress. Cursing at Erskine, she drives away in tears.

On a trial morning, Nova rides in the back of a police car driven by Sheriff Owens. Starla sits beside her but refuses to look at her. The experience feels unreal to Nova, who reflects on being raped and her inability to tell anyone about the trauma.

As they approach the courthouse, angry protestors surround the car, shouting. Nova hears a chant to lock someone up and initially fears that they mean her, until she sees a sign with Bria’s name on it. Nova thinks about how Bria and the now-deceased Cocheta were the only ones who helped her.

At the courthouse entrance, Sheriff Owens opens the car door, but Nova is frozen with fear, unable to move. The crowd presses closer, screaming and chanting. Finally, Starla returns to the car, takes Nova’s trembling hand, and leads her toward the courthouse.

On Thursday morning, Meyers picks Bria up for court. The ride is necessary because, after the first day of trial, someone vandalized her car. As they approach the courthouse, chaotic crowds fill the streets. After parking nearby, they’re forced to run when someone spots Bria. The custodian, Aurora, lets them in through a locked back entrance.

Bria goes to the restroom alone. While she’s in a stall, a crowd of women enters. As Bria washes her hands afterward, a woman shoves her while another grabs her arm and writes on her wrist with a red marker before disappearing. Back in the hall, she shows the red “K” to Meyers.

As court begins, Meyers wants to report the bathroom assault to Mary, but Bria tells him to let it go to avoid drawing more attention. Following Meyers’s advice, Bria places her hands on the table so that the jury won’t think she’s hiding anything.

Mary passes a wicker basket of hard candies to the jury, explaining that it’s her personal tradition to help them stay focused and relaxed, drawing laughter. Meyers notes that a lighter mood generally helps the defense.

DA Reeves begins his opening statement, pointing directly at Bria and accusing her of performing a felony abortion on 13-year-old Nova. He presents the prosecution’s narrative: Nova became pregnant after having sex with an unknown boy at a party where alcohol and marijuana were involved. Reeves states that under Alabama law, Nova’s consent to the sexual encounter is irrelevant to the charge against Bria. He argues that the abortion Bria performed could have killed the girl.

On the first morning of testimony, Mary worries about the spectators’ volatile energy. Having learned of the assault on Bria in the restroom, she arranges for Luna to escort Bria during breaks after Sheriff Owens claims that he can’t spare a female deputy.

The prosecution calls emergency-room physician Dr. Ron Thompson, who testifies that he treated Nova for heavy bleeding, blood clots, and a pelvic infection consistent with a suction curettage abortion. Meyers successfully objects multiple times to Reeves’s questions, frustrating the gallery. When a woman shouts that the judge is “crooked,” Mary marches into the gallery and ejects her. She warns the remaining spectators that she will clear the room if there are further disruptions.

On cross-examination, Meyers asks about the medical risks of pregnancy for girls under 15. Over Reeves’s objection, Thompson testifies that such pregnancies carry significantly higher risks of eclampsia, preterm birth, and maternal mortality. Suddenly, a brick crashes through one of the large courtroom windows, showering glass over the spectators.

Court recesses while the broken window is boarded up. A deputy reports that the brick thrower couldn’t be identified. A teenage boy in a Bullock County High School fleece shirt enters, claiming that his journalism teacher sent him to cover the trial for a class project. Alarmed at the prospect of the trial appearing in the school paper, where Nova’s peers would see it, Mary tells him to wait in the hall.

When court resumes, Reeves calls Deputy Wallace Greismer and attempts to introduce a written, unsworn statement from the deceased Cocheta Bass. Meyers objects, citing the hearsay rule and his client’s Sixth Amendment right to confront her accusers. Mary sustains the objection and rules the statement inadmissible. Reeves attempts to blame Mary for weakening his case. Mary retorts that Reeves is to blame for persuading the original defense counsel to waive the preliminary hearing, where Cocheta’s testimony could have been preserved under oath.

Assistant AG Lindquist calls Nova to the witness stand. Nova enters and freezes upon seeing the packed gallery. Mary calmly coaxes her forward, reassuring her.

Mary is concerned, as Nova appears increasingly nervous and on the verge of fainting. Nova testifies that the school nurse, Cocheta, suspected that something was wrong when she kept coming to her office feeling sick. She did a pregnancy test that came back positive. When Lindquist presses Nova to testify about attending a party where she got drunk and had sex with a boy, Meyers objects to the leading question. Mary sustains it. Lindquist rephrases, again instructing Nova to describe what happened at the party and telling her not to be embarrassed.

Nova silently recalls that there was no party. When Lindquist pushes her to describe the night she became intoxicated, Nova’s voice cracks, and she struggles not to cry as she states that she can’t repeat the party story because she swore an oath to God, and the story is a lie.

In that moment, Nova spots one of her rapists sitting in the courtroom gallery, staring at her. She looks away, and then her resolve hardens. She realizes that he’s the one who should be ashamed, not her—and that he belongs in jail, not Bria, who only tried to help her.

Lindquist confronts Nova, insisting that the party story came from her. Nova shouts that she was instructed to tell that story and went along with it to avoid trouble. She then begins weeping uncontrollably. Reeves requests a recess, while Meyers objects to Lindquist’s badgering of her own witness. Chaos erupts as spectators pull out phones to photograph the crying child.

Mary clears the courtroom of all spectators and excuses the jury for a break. She then comforts Nova while refusing Lindquist’s request for private time with the witness to prevent prosecution coaching. Mary gently reminds Nova of the importance of telling the whole truth.

Prompted by Mary’s questioning, Nova reveals that two white boys attacked her. She testifies that they raped her behind an old gas station, threatened her siblings, and claimed to be in the Ku Klux Klan. One of them showed her a “K” mark on his arm.

Mary hears the lawyers’ arguments at the bench and then orders the jury back in. Lindquist resumes her direct examination.

Nova testifies that Cocheta drove her to Bria’s clinic late at night on March 23. She had sneaked out of her family’s apartment without her mother’s knowledge. Nova describes the abortion procedure and reveals that she didn’t return for a follow-up appointment because she couldn’t risk her mother finding out. She continued to bleed and feel sick until she was taken to the hospital.

When Lindquist asks Nova to identify who performed the abortion, Nova points to Bria and volunteers that Bria was kind to her and helped her. Reeves demands that the jury disregard the statement, but Mary overrules him. Lindquist concludes her questioning.

Meyers cross-examines Nova respectfully. Over Reeves’s objection, Mary allows him to question Nova about the circumstances of her pregnancy, ruling it a material issue in the case.

Meyers asks Nova if she knows who got her pregnant. Nova cries out and points toward the gallery at the boy in the high-school fleece shirt who earlier claimed to be a student journalist. She says that he was there and raped her. A scuffle erupts as the boy tries to flee, but other spectators grab and restrain him. Mary orders the courtroom doors locked and declares a recess, calling Sheriff Owens on his personal number.