In the mid-1990s, Dublin was nothing short of a war zone, with a few powerful drug lords battling for control. Their most fearsome opponent was not the police but the courageous journalist Veronica Guerin (CATE BLANCHETT), who covered the crime beat with unmatched intensity. As she investigated and exposed the "pushers," balancing her home and family against her responsibility to her readers and her country, she became a national folk heroine to the people of Ireland; each attempt on her life only galvanized her legend. Her brutal murder in 1996 forced a dramatic revision of Ireland's laws and led to the arrests of the nation's top criminals.