The riots and looting in Detroit, 1967, were sparked by the mostly white police force coming into a predominantly black neighborhood in order to infiltrate a nightclub operating without a license, which ended up with yet another incident of police aggression and harassment in the area that has seemingly gone on unchecked. Specifically, the film concentrates on the Algiers Motel incident, which which a group of black men, and two white women, end up having a terrifying night while being interrogated by several white police officers and members of the military. The methods of interrogation includes beatings, and the horrifying deaths of those who refused to comply to the request of the authorities to produce a gun that they believed had been used to shoot at them.