A young man desperate to be connected to the people close to him resorts to devious measures to achieve that desire

11-year-old Akeelah Anderson has a way with words. After winning her schoolwide spelling bee, she decides to enter the competition, despite her classmates' derision and the antipathy of her mother Tanya. Thanks to the efforts of her teacher Dr. Larabee, she reaches the finals. As she gets to know her fellow competitors, Akeelah realizes that coming first isn't everything in life.

When the heiress of a luxury hotel chain is kidnapped at her dingy motel outside Detroit by a band of ruthless sex traffickers, her downtrodden assistant must figure out a way to rescue her.

A grieving defense attorney gets caught in a twisted game of who-done-it when he takes on the case of a beautiful socialite who is accused of murder.