A 19-year-old boy has just stood trial for the fatal stabbing of his father. “He doesn”t stand a chance,’ mutters the guard as the 12 jurors are taken into the bleak jury room. It looks like an open-and-shut case until one of the jurors begins opening the others’ eyes to the facts. “This is a remarkable thing about democracy,” says the foreign-born juror, “that we are notified by mail to come down to this place and decide on the guilt or innocence of a man, of a man we have not known before. We have nothing to gain or lose by our verdict. We should not make it a personal thing.” But personal it does become, with each juror revealing his or her own character as the various testimonies are re-examined, the murder is re-enacted and a new murder threat is born before their own eyes! Tempers get short, arguments grow heated, and the jurors become twelve angry people.