In late March of 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, as Martin Luther King leads a march in support of striking sanitation workers, provocateurs in the crowd end up breaking storefront windows along the way. As the police close in, Martin Luther King is led away to safety. Before leaving Memphis, he meets with members of a local community group. He asks them to assist in monitoring his next march in Memphis.

Unbeknownst to King, a military A-team is deployed to Memphis. There mission is to assassinate him. A man known only as Raul leads fugitive James Earl Ray to purchase a rifle and meet him there as well. Ray is helping Raul in return for a passport so that he can flee the country. In reality, Ray is being used as a patsy.

Before returning to Memphis, King takes time out to be with his family back in Atlanta. He also meets with his associates to plan for the upcoming Poor People's Campaign, his plan to bring half a million of the nation's poor to Washington D.C. until the government agrees to take real steps to end poverty in this, the wealthiest nation in the world.

This frightens the powers that be so much so that J. Edgar Hoover meets with President Johnson in the White House to get his approval for the upcoming assassination. Back in Memphis, members of the Memphis Police Department plan the hit at Jim's Grill. Loyd Jowers, owner of the establishment, agrees to help as a way of foregoing a large gambling debt he owes to local mafia hitman, Frank Liberto.

The FBI works behind the scenes to get King to stay on an upper floor room at the Lorraine Motel so that Memphis Police sharpshooter, Earl Clark will have a clear shot at him. The Green Berets set up positions for triangulation shooting from nearby rooftops in case Earl is unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Raul sends Ray off to the movies so that he can set him up to take the fall.

Everyone takes up positions. When King comes out onto the balcony, it is Earl Clark who fires the fatal shot. Earl hands the rifle off to Loyd who promptly takes it into his diner. The shooter jumps into a waiting police car that whisks him away from the scene. A cab driver who witnesses the assassination calls his dispatcher and tells him to contact the authorities.

King's children hear about the shooting while watching television. Coretta hurries to catch a flight to Memphis. As she arrives at the airport, she is told her husband has died.

The next day, the overgrown brush area across from the Lorraine is cut down under police supervision. The cab driver who witnessed the assassin fleeing the scene is found murdered after talking with federal investigators. The FBI alters a report on the rifle to fit their scenario of a lone nut assassin. Loyd pays a friend to dispose of the murder weapon.

Thousands turn out in Atlanta to mourn the loss of this great leader. Ray is arrested and sent to jail without a trial. In 1999, a civil trial found city, state, and federal authorities guilty in conspiring to kill Martin Luther King.