Handlung

In the upscale Miami suburb of Blue Bay, wealthy student Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards) accuses her high school guidance counselor, Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon), of sexually assaulting her. It was a Friday and Lombardo had just returned from a yacht class, late in the evening, while Kelly had completed her cheer-leading training. Kelly offers to wash Lombardo's car as part of the senior car wash program. Kelly arrives at Lombardo's place on Sunday with her friend Nicole (Toi Svane Stepp). Lombardo loves to take his air-boat to explore the Florida Everglades alone. Lombardo had been gone all Saturday and on Sunday the car was nice and dirty for the girls. Lombardo was dating Barbara (Jennifer Taylor).

After the wash, Kelly asks Nicole to leave, and enters Lombardo's home. Barbara was already at the club. A short while later, Kelly exits the home looking livid. Kelly misses school on Monday and her mother Sandra talks to her, where she admits to Lombadro assaulting her. Sandra immediately lodges a complaint with the police. Kelly gives her testimony to the police and says that Lombardo did not ejaculate inside her. Detective Gloria Perez (Daphne Rubin-Vega) believes that Kelly is acting, but cannot get her to take a lie detector test as in Blue Bay Sandra is too powerful.

Following the accusation, her outcast classmate Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell), who comes from a poor family in the Everglades, makes a similar accusation. Sam hires attorney Kenneth Bowden (Bill Murray) to defend him. Based on Suzie's testimony, specifically when she utters a phrase that apparently Lombardo said to her, which matched exactly to Kelly's testimony, Lombardo is arrested. Bowden is the only attorney in the Bay area who would go up against the Van Ryans. Barbara breaks up with Lombardo and he is expelled from the local club.

At trial, Suzie succumbs to pressure during cross-examination and admits that she and Kelly concocted the false allegations to get revenge on Sam. Suzie was seeking revenge for Sam's failure to bail her out of jail on a minor drug charge, and Kelly was seeking revenge for Sam's affair with her mother, real estate heiress Sandra Van Ryan (Theresa Russell). Sam and Kenneth negotiate an $8.5 million settlement for defamation, which Sandra pays out using funds from a trust Kelly would receive only upon Sandra's death. After the payout, it is revealed that Sam and the two girls were accomplices, using the trial to extort money from Sandra. It is revealed that the three had been working and sleeping together and planned to split the money.

Police detective Ray Duquette suspects the trio is working on a scam. Against the wishes of the district attorney's office, he continues investigating Sam. Ray (Kevin Bacon) tells both Kelly and Suzie that Lombardo transferred the money to an offshore account. Suzie starts to panic and goes to Kelly for help. Kelly assures Suzie that they can trust each other but separately tells Lombardo over the phone that they may have to get rid of her. Suzie overhears this and attacks Kelly in the pool. Both girls fight but eventually end up having sex in the pool.

A few nights later, Kelly and Lombardo take an intoxicated Suzie to the beach. Lombardo is seen raising a bottle, and then Suzie is heard screaming. After wrapping the body in plastic, they throw it in the trunk of the car and drive out to the swamp, where Lombardo disposes of it.

Suzie is reported missing by her family the next day and Duquette and his partner, Gloria (Daphne Rubin-Vega), are called in. Suzie's blood and teeth are later found on the beach and her car is found at the bus terminal. After seeing his continued investigation, his superior insists that he drop the case. Sam shows Gloria his files from the school on Kelly, which suggests she is troubled and violent.

Regardless, he goes to Kelly's house to confront her. When he arrives, Kelly tries to seduce him and then she appears to attack him, shooting him in the arm, leaving him no choice but to kill her in self-defense. No charges are filed against Duquette, but he is fired and loses his pension.

Later, it is revealed that Lombardo and Duquette had been working together the entire time. Although Lombardo is not pleased that Duquette killed Kelly instead of framing her as originally planned, Duquette insists that it leaves fewer loose ends. The two agree to go fishing on Lombardo's sailboat the following day. Once they are at sea, Lombardo knocks Duquette overboard, but he is able to climb back aboard and attack Lombardo. However, he is shot in the leg with a spear by Suzie, who is still alive. She shoots and kills Duquette as revenge for killing her friend, Davie, years before. Suzie then poisons Lombardo with a drink she poured for him and knocks him overboard, leaving him to drown.

It is then revealed that Suzie had planned the whole thing in order to get all the money and revenge on both Lombardo and Duquette: Lombardo for leaving her in jail for a minor crime of possession for which she was imprisoned for 6 months, and Duquette for killing her friend Davie.

Upon finding that Sam and Kelly were in a sexual relationship, Suzie blackmailed Sam with photographs of the two using drugs during sex, convincing him to help with her scheme. Suzie subsequently orchestrated the meeting between Sam and Ray at a local bar.

During her staged murder on the beach, Suzie pulled out her own teeth with pliers to make her death appear legitimate. Ray shot Kelly first before shooting himself in the shoulder to pretend he killed her in self-defense.

As for Kelly's death, she had not attacked Duquette as he had claimed. In reality, when she tried to escape the guest house when he entered, he punched her to incapacitate her then broke into the gun case and shot her twice with his gun. He then used her hand to shoot himself in the shoulder with her gun.

Finally, with Kelly, Ray, and Sam all dead, Suzie is met by Kenneth, who gives her a briefcase full of cash that he describes as "just walking around money" and a check for millions of dollars. As she leaves, he tells her to "be good" before taking her drink.