It is based on John Ball's 1965 novel of the same name and tells the story of Virgil Tibbs, a black police detective from Philadelphia, who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a small town in Mississippi.
Está baseado na novela de John Ball In the Heat of the Night e conta a historia de Virgil Tibbs, un policía negro de Filadelfia, que se involucra nunha investigación de asasinato nunha pequena vila de Mississippi.