Detectives Briscoe and Logan investigate the murder of Dawn Bryan. The young African-American woman once had a bright future ahead of her. She was a good student and was even voted most likely to succeed. It seems to have all come tumbling down when she got hooked on crack. She was shot with a .45 caliber gun and their first suspect is her supplier and sometime live-in boyfriend who goes by the street name of Skate. The dead woman's family are devastated by the loss of their daughter but they feel they lost her long ago when she became hooked on drugs. When the evidence points to a family member as the likely culprit, ADA Stone and DA Adam Schiff both feel a good deal of sympathy. Paul Robinette however doesn't think anyone should have leniency and pushes for a grand jury indictment.

An attorney may have been killed for trying to further bilk people who have lost their life savings in an S&L scandal.

Lawyers make a deal with a suspected cop killer in order to find a kidnapping victim. However, the DA's office wants to renege on the deal after the victim is found dead, and detectives suspect that he knew the victim was dead all along.

After a comatose woman dies during childbirth, McCoy pursues murder charges against the health-care worker who impregnated her, but the investigation reveals that the victim's mother may have played a role in the incident.