A group of detectives and officers work at the 15th Precinct, a seedy police station in Manhattan, New York City. Detective John Kelly, a 15-year veteran of the force, deals with his partner Andy Sipowitz, an alcoholic 20-year veteran detective. Laura Michaels, an aspiring lawyer and Detective Kelly's wife, is having problems with their marriage and she hires Josh Goldstein, a lawyer who lives in apartment 4B of their building to work on a divorce, who gets mugged in the laundry room of the building. Meanwhile, Sipowicz is relentlessly pursuing mobster Alfonse Giardella, who threatens Sipowicz to leave him alone. Later, Sipowicz is shot by Giardella during a tryst with a prostitute. Enraged, Kelly orders the precinct officers to hound Giardella and his ruthless employer; mafia kingpin Angelo Marino. The new patrol officer, Janice Licalsi, is attracted to Detective Kelly. But is she is revealed to be an informant for Marino who orders her to murder Kelly.

Inspector Lastarza of the Organized Crime Unit tells Lt. Fancy and Kelly that they stop applying pressure to the local mob for their pursuit of Angelo Marino is hurting the FBI investigation to nail Marino. Meanwhile, Sipowicz regains consciousness in the hospital after the shooting, but he has no memory about the attempt on his life because he was drunk at the time. Laura and John Kelly become officially separated and she decides to join a private law firm. Josh "4B" Goldstein becomes more paranoid about his mugging and brings a gun into the laundry room every night in hopes to catch his attacker. Kelly tries to reason with a deranged man who has taken a judge hostage who let his son's killer free. Elsewhere, Angelo Marino puts more pressure on Janice to murder Kelly, but she kills him and his chauffeur/bodyguard instead and slips away.