A teenager confesses to shooting a classmate, but claims it was an accident. Detectives also discover that he was responsible for a similar shooting two years earlier, but the records are sealed.

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.

The death of a government official in New York leads Jack McCoy to cross swords with the Independent Counsel in Washington, as he tries to keep the identity of a key witness secret.

When a decorated military veteran is found murdered in his own home, Cosgrove and Shaw work with his daughter to uncover an important clue. Price and Maroun must untangle the stories of other service members connected to the victim.