Exceptional performances by Lindsay Wagner and young Holly Marie Combs (''Picket Fences'') just about save tonight's ''Sins of Silence'' (9, Ch. 47) from a script that implodes into cliche and sloganeering.

Wagner is especially outstanding as Molly McKinley, a former nun who runs a rape-crisis center. She grows close to Sophie (Combs), a wary-but-vulnerable 17-year-old who was assaulted by the scion of the town's most prominent family.

When the defendant's lawyer (Sean McCann) subpoenas Molly's confidential records of her sessions with Sophie, Molly faces a cruel choice: to protect Sophie's privacy or go to jail for contempt.

''Sins of Silence'' creates warm and believable characters, but then the movie posits that Molly left the convent for a reason as hackneyed as it is generally untrue: It seems she only entered because she was hiding from the world.

None of this, though, diminishes the power of Wagner's and Combs' sensitive and insightful performances.

Kirk Nicewonger, United Feature Syndicate