Thatcher Brown, a graduate student at UCLA and a rebel with a cause. He is working on a research project studying how cannabis helps in the treatment of pain, nausea and disease. He and his best friend and neighbor, Jon Marshall, played by Andre Mayers, go out for an evening to celebrate the end of the term. They are victims of the criminal justice system because, they along with two sexy girls, are caught possessing pot. Both Thatcher and Jon, whose parents are upper middle class families (one white, one black), have forceful fathers. Robert Brown is a successful lawyer believing that "the law is the law" and those who break it should suffer the consequences. His mother, Carol Brow, is a strong-minded woman determined to help her imprisoned son.