Lt. Disher and Captain Stottlemeyer capture a "Most Wanted", Colombian criminal, Miguel Escobar, who's wanted for drug trafficking crimes in multiple states, and arrest him for a local homicide. Escobar is notorious for escaping custody, so Stottlemeyer must take extra precautions to ensure that this does not happen while Escobar is in his custody. Captain Stottlemeyer learns that the US Attorney General is ordering him to turn over Escobar to the Federal Government, and is to do nothing more than detain their prisoner until the hand-off, following an extradition hearing. This takes place in the same courthouse where, much to his dismay, Mr. Monk is unable to talk his way out of jury duty, and finds himself forced to hear the case of a robbery/stabbing of a man out to make a bank deposit. During the course of deliberating the robbery case, however, Monk is inadvertently pulled into the Escobar saga.

Monk is smitten with an attractive former dancer and when she's accused of murder, he agrees to help her, even though all the evidence points to her, and continues searching--even after she confesses to the crime.