Melanie, a free-lance advertising artist vying for a partnership in a hot new agency, takes a job designing an ad campaign for a handgun for women. Initially ambivalent about the use of firearms, Mel become obsessed with her new campaign after an encounter with a severely injured rape victim, and gradually begins to view gun ownership as the only rational response to the growing threat of urban violence. Unfortunately, Mel fails to notice until too late that her own teenaged son, Collin, is learning about guns on the street, and is rapidly developing his own violent fascination with the use of deadly force, leading to a chilling outcome for them both.