LA, 1997. The city is restless and simmering with tension. In two seemingly unconnected attacks, rap superstars Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. are brutally murdered. Across town, a black off-duty cop is gunned down by a white undercover cop in broad daylight.Award-winning journalist Randall Sullivan's searing investigation uncovers a mass of connections to Suge Knight and his infamous label Death Row Records.

But as Sullivan follows his leads into the darkest corners of the city, he finds the case thwarted at every turn by the LAPD itself - and realises that he is caught in a web of police corruption that spreads wider than he could have ever imagined.