As the Watts riots erupted one steamy night in 1965, the Los Angeles Times sent its reporters to the scene – white men who, soon after they arrived, had to run for their lives. Then Bob Richardson, a young African American messenger for the paper, volunteered to cover the story alone. He braved fire, fury, bullets and death to report the courage and the cowardice, injustice and hate that engulfed the streets. His work helped earn the Times a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the uprising. Heat Wave tells the dynamic true story of America on the brink of racial meltdown and of citizens – black and white – who refused to allow violence to conquer hope.

An aspiring opera singer from Harlem teams up with a charismatic busker and a kindhearted hustler to share his voice with the world, and teaches his two newfound friends the importance of taking your destiny into your own hands.