In New York City, high-priced prostitute Claudia Draper is jailed on first-degree manslaughter charges after she kills a client who attacked her. At her competency hearing, she meets Clarence Middleton, the lawyer her aging mother and stepfather, Rose and Arthur Kirk, hired, but does not like him. Claudia punches him in the face in the courtroom, and he immediately resigns. The judge assigns Aaron Levinsky, an attorney who happens to be in the courtroom, to represent her. Two psychiatric reports say Claudia is not competent to stand trial, but Aaron demands a chance to talk with his new client, and the hearing is postponed until Monday. Claudia takes an immediate dislike to Aaron, who tells her they must get at least one psychiatrist to say she is competent to stand trial, otherwise she will remain locked in the prison’s psychiatric wing. Claudia wants to take the stand, but Aaron advises against that, saying she has no idea what cross-examination can be like. The attorney looks around Claudia’s apartment, where the killing of Allen Green occurred in the bathroom. The apartment is large with many nice things, indicating Claudia lived well. Aaron picks out some clothes for Claudia to wear to the hearing. Though upset to see someone going through her belongings, she agrees to wear the black dress to the courtroom. The next day, psychiatrist Herbert Morrison, the ward unit chief at New York County Prison Hospital, where Claudia is being held, testifies that she is not competent to stand trial. When Claudia was brought in, she was nearly catatonic and would not speak. When she did start talking, she was angry and belligerent and used inappropriate humor. She seemed to believe there was a conspiracy against her. Claudia shouts out during Morrison’s testimony and the judge warns her to be quiet. When Aaron cross-examines him, Dr. Morrison mentions that Claudia was a prostitute, but Aaron points out she has not been charged with prostitution. Rose Kirk testifies that her daughter became moody and withdrawn starting in the sixth grade, and one time tried to attack her and Claudia’s stepfather with scissors. Years later, when Claudia divorced, Rose invited her daughter to move back home, but she refused. She says she sent Claudia many letters, but they were all sent back. Claudia refuses to let Aaron cross examine Rose. Arthur Kirk tells the court he became Claudia’s stepfather when she was five years old, after her father walked out on them. He testifies that he tried to make up for "abandonment issues" by spoiling her with gifts. Arthur also routinely gave young Claudia money as an incentive for doing chores. Claudia doodles on a notepad throughout the testimony. At one point, she draws a picture of a mother, father, and young girl. Aaron notices that none of them have mouths, and is struck with an idea. Although Claudia does not want Aaron to cross examine her stepfather, he insists. Aaron asks how old Claudia was when Arthur stopped giving her baths. Arthur does not remember, but Aaron presses him for an answer. Claudia recalls being a teenager and Arthur knocking at the locked bathroom door. She remembers him slipping money under the door until she let him in. Claudia collapses in the courtroom, screaming, “Don’t let him hurt me!” That evening, Aaron goes to see Claudia in the jail hospital, apologizing for failing to take her feelings into account. Claudia starts crying, and Aaron tells her that he believes she is sane. Later, he confronts Dr. Morrison, angry that he sedated Claudia after the breakdown in court. The next day, Claudia comes to court in a bathrobe, but is fairly coherent. When she takes the stand, Aaron asks her to explain what will happen if she loses the competency hearing. Claudia says they can hold her in the psychiatric wing for a year and renew that hold on a yearly basis for up to two-thirds of the maximum sentence for the crime with which she is charged. Since first-degree manslaughter carries a maximum of twenty-five years, she could be held in the psychiatric wing for seventeen years without ever going to trial. Essentially they could hold her in a hospital for the criminally insane for the rest of her life. She insists she is mentally and physically ready to go to trial. Under cross-examination, District Attorney Francis MacMillan asks if she and her husband, Peter Draper, wanted children. Claudia says no and acknowledges that she had an abortion because she does “not believe in childhood.” MacMillan asks how she paid the rent after her divorce, noting that she lives in a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side. She replies that she lived on “gifts” from male friends. When MacMillan presses for specifics, Claudia reports she was a prostitute for three years and made over $100,000 per year. She also testifies that it hurt less to sell herself to strangers than to ask her parents for money. Dr. Herbert Morrison returns to the stand and the D.A. asks if he has changed his opinion about Claudia’s competency in light of the testimony. He replies, “Absolutely not.” Claudia becomes angry and insists she is sane. In his closing statement, Aaron says they should not confuse Claudia's behavior with her capacity to stand trial. Judge Stanley Murdoch offers to adjourn the hearing for two weeks if Claudia will consent to an independent psychiatric examination, but she refuses. While the judge deliberates, Rose tells Claudia she wants the best for her. The two women hug. Claudia thanks Aaron for defending her. When Judge Murdoch returns, he rules that Claudia is competent, and releases her on her own recognizance until her manslaughter trial begins. Claudia rushes out of the courtroom and wanders down the sidewalk, happy to be free.