Ruth Ellis is arrested standing over her lover's dead body with a gun in her hand. The police believe it to be an open and shut case but Ruth's solicitor, John Bickford, starts to suspect there's more to the tragedy than meets the eye. While he starts to discover the truth, we follow Ruth from the beginning of her passionate affair with David as she journeys into his glamorous upper middle-class world. And as the relationship intensifies, we glimpse David's more controlling and abusive side and a darker romance begins to develop.

Found guilty and condemned to hang in three week's time, Ruth initially accepts her fate but becomes more desperate as her time draws near and her lawyer puts pressure on the Home Office for a reprieve. As Ruth reflects on the past few months, we learn that she had become pregnant with David's child. Having lost everything she worked so hard for, with her relationship becoming more violent, Ruth relies on Desmond to provide for her and her son. And as we watch the crumbling of her past life, the pressures of the imminent future and death take centre stage. Will reprieve be granted?