James Franco (127 Hours) stars as the young Allen Ginsberg - poet, counter-culture adventurer and chronicler of the Beat Generation. In his famously confessional, leave-nothing-out style, Ginsberg recounts the road trips, love affairs and search for personal liberation that led to the most timeless and electrifying work of his career, the poem 'Howl'. Meanwhile, in a San Francisco courtroom, Prosecutor Ralph McIntosh (David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck) sets out to prove that the book should be banned, whilst suave defense attorney Jake Ehrlich (Jon Hamm, Mad Men) argues fervently for freedom of speech and creative expression. Howl offers an enlightening portrait of one of America's greatest literary figures.