LOGLINE
An old African woman, on her deathbed, tells two Malaysians and Judge Maggie about a diamond of rare beauty and size. The stone rolls out from beneath her with her last breath. Now the diamond’s fate lies in Maggie’s hands. However, Africa and the unwitting witnesses don’t exactly bring Maggie peace. The Malaysians are hunting the stone for more than just a bank account balance—it holds far greater significance for them.
SYNOPSIS
Judge Maggie leads a quiet, routine life. Her job is simple, handling petty criminals—hooliganism, theft, and small-time brawls. One typical workday, a petty thief named Tom appears before her. He’s facing three years, but Maggie sentences him to five. Tom tells the court about his impoverished life and claims that his grandmother has a massive diamond. However, his grandmother is not nearby—she’s in Africa.
As the Malaysian jury members embark on a journey to Africa in search of the diamond, Judge Maggie, after verifying the legend through her own channels and confirming the potential authenticity of the story, follows them. However, in Africa, their paths cross in a strange way at the deathbed of Tom’s grandmother. Judge Maggie confounds the Malaysians with legal intricacies and offers to handle the diamond’s documentation. She then appropriates the diamond, hiding it in a secret place on her person, and flies off to an unknown destination.
Meanwhile, the former jurors return to the U.S. and help Tom post bail, hoping to use him as the legitimate heir to the diamond once it’s found.
The story takes a dark turn when Maggie’s parents are blackmailed, and their lives are threatened. Maggie, hiding out in Japan, asks her detective friend Henry to investigate. Henry makes contact with the Malaysians, now led by Tom. Tom reveals the true history of the diamond to Henry. It has a cultic power. Discovered in 1780 at a mine in Zimbabwe, the diamond was stolen and transported by a slave trader to an island in Malaysia after a shipwreck. The slave trader, Harry, survived and began posing as a deity, using the diamond in front of local natives. They tolerated him for a while, but according to tradition, they eventually ate him for lunch, believing that the diamond imbued it with divine power.
According to Tom’s story, the diamond returned to Africa during World War II, passed to his grandmother by an American soldier who had fought near Pearl Harbor. The soldier had found the diamond in ancient catacombs. Tom’s Malaysian partners are direct descendants of the same tribe in Malaysia that has been searching for the diamond for nearly 70 years, ever since Japanese fascists stole it during the war, only to perish in the caves where the American soldier found it.
Henry realizes that the diamond will bring nothing but harm to Maggie and urges her to return it to the tribe. But Maggie insists on keeping it. The tribe sends a dozen cannibals to the U.S. to help retrieve the diamond. Henry warns Maggie of an even greater threat, prompting her to return to the U.S. But she convinces Henry to give the Malaysians a fake diamond instead. The scam is quickly uncovered, and both Maggie and Henry face retaliation from the enraged Malaysians.
Events unfold in such a way that Detective Henry accidentally gains temporary control of the diamond and returns it to the Malaysians.
The conflict is resolved, but Maggie remains deeply dissatisfied with her still bleak financial situation. However, Henry hears words of gratitude from the Malaysians, who have returned the diamond to its tribal totemic place. The tribe’s leader, possessing knowledge of the natural riches on his island, decides to literally make Maggie and Henry rich. On Christmas, Maggie finds a check for ten million dollars.