When a young man named Henry wakes up from a coma on New Year's Eve 1999, he discovers that the world has changed drastically while he slept. People are no longer allowed to set foot on his city's beaches, and every night unnatural lights streak through the sky towards a destination unknown.

In a world where all criminal trials are broadcast on television and voted on by the public, a young actress is charged with attempting to murder her husband. As her side of the story falls on increasingly deaf ears, the hostile audience response to the trial is monitored by two Adjudicators - one a cynical veteran of the system, and the other a naïve rookie who finds himself becoming sympathetic to her situation.