All the detectives scramble to solve the case, when the mother, in a family on vacation, is murdered during a holdup. The husband has a hard time dealing with the reality of him not doing anything during the situation and Felton's indifference. When the suspects are found Howard is convinced that the youth who confesses to the murder didn't do it.

Gee informs the detectives that they must meet with a sensitivity consultant. Felton protects a friend who's going to help his terminally ill father commit suicide. Pembleton investigates a routine murder that escalates into a case of possible police brutality. Bolander has no intention of meeting with the consultant to the point where he takes a suspension without pay. Lewis investigates the death of the father of Felton's friend and discovers the truth and confronts Beau.

Bolander asks Kay if she would double date with him and Linda, to try to take the pressure off his first real date. A slain phone-sex operator is found clutching a note naming her boss as the perpetrator, Bayliss and Pembleton investigate. Munch has trouble dealing with Bolander's happiness, so he crashes the double date and makes everyone miserable. A man is shot to death over a pen at the library, Lewis and Crosetti investigate and find a man with a pen fetish. As Bayliss looks into the murder he begins to get involved.