David Irving is a Holocaust denier, but woe betide anyone who calls him that. He is also a scholar on Nazi Germany. He files a lawsuit against Deborah Lipstadt, a professor of Holicaust Studies, but he files it in the United Kingdom, where the burden of proof in a libel case is on the accused and not on the accuser. Lipstadt's legal team is led by solicitor Anthony Julius, and barrister Richard Rampton who will be in charge of the case when it gets to court. Their job is to prove that Irving lied about the Holocaust.
Lipstadt's defense team subpoenas Irving's personal diaries, so that they are able to see what he thinks about the Nazis and the Holocaust in private, where nobody is policing his views. In order to prepare for the case, Lipstadt and Rampton go to Poland in order tour the site of the death camp known as Auschwitz with a local scholar and guide. Lipstadt grows increasingly frustrated by the British way of doing things, which seems to her to be more focused on minimizing the publicity surrounding the case, and less focused on actually proving her innocent of the libel charge. She also finds Rampton tone deaf when it comes to questioning their guide, because he is uninformed and disrespectful. The British Jewish community want the entire incident swept under the carpet and want her to settle the lawsuit; however, the defense team score a victory when they persuade Irving to have a trial by judge instead of by jury. They feel that his smooth talking will manipulate a jury but that he will find a judge harder to manipulate.
Having never heard the saying, "a man who defends himself has a fool for a client", Irving conducts his own defense. He twists all of Lipstadt's evidence to support himself and his point of view. Lipstadt's team turn away a Holocaust survivor who wants to testify at the trial; they are less interested in proving the truth of the Holocaust and more interested in showing Irving to be a liar.
Irving does not defend himself; he defends his views. These include a claim that there were no gas chambers in the camps; he claims that the chamber roofs had no holes in them and therefore it would be impossible for Xyklon B gas crystals to be introduced into the room. His mantra is "no holes, no Holocaust" (reminiscent of the Johnny Cochrane riposte at the trial of O.J. Simpson "If it does't fit, you must acquit.") This captures the attention of the media to the isolation of almost anything else - which of course Irving knew perfectly well it would. Lipstadt is enraged. She demands that she and the Holocaust survivor take the stand to show Irving's claims up for the lies that they are, but Anthony Julius won't allow it, because he knows that a man of such low morals as Irving will think nothing of humiliating a Holocaust survivor on the stand. He will probably use the fact that he survived as evidence to prove his claim that there were no extermination camps. Rampton asks Lipstadt to bear with him; he will show her why he is confident that her testimony is not needed. In cross-examination, he shows up Irving's claims as absurd, and another expert in the field reveals the lies and distorted truths in Irving's writings.
Judge Gray gives the defense cause to worry when he begins his summing up of the case. He suggests that if Irving genuinely believes what he is saying then he cannot truly be lying, as Lipstadt asserts. However, he rules in favor of the defense. He is convinced that Lipstadt portrayed Irving as cunning and deceitful because he is both of those things, and her writing is therefore not libelous. Her grace under pressure is commended, and at the press conference after the conclusion of the trial, she praises her defense team for their flawless strategy.
