Time is running out for university professor Jack Gramm (Al Pacino). Gramm is a university professor, who also works with the FBI, specializing in forensic psychiatry. Gramm is working investigating the crimes of a copycat killer in Seattle. The copycat killer uses similar methods to the killer Jon Forster (Neal McDonough) who Gramm helped sentence to death. The action begins for Gramm when he receives a death threat cryptically telling him that he has only eighty-eight minutes to live. He must figure out who his would be killer is before it is too late. He is able to narrow down the list of suspects to three: a strange and difficult student, his ex-girlfriend, or serial killer, Jon Forster awaiting execution on death row.