Hamstrung by the fallout from the pandemic and budget cuts thanks to the defund the police movement, the LAPD's elite Homicide Special Section gets caught short-handed when a North Hollywood murder involving a celebrity actor goes down. The Robbery-Homicide Division commander pulls Detective Howard Drew and his partner Amy Li from Open-Unsolved to spearhead the high-profile investigation.

Temporary assignment to Homicide Special puts Howard squarely into the midst of a media firestorm when he takes the lead on the murder investigation after someone shoots to death the wife of a famous Hollywood actor outside a popular Studio City restaurant. It's been a while since Drew and his partner at Open-Unsolved have caught a fresh kill, but Howard is determined to make the most of the unexpected opportunity. But the moment he arrives at the scene, Howard quickly discovers something about the case doesn't add up. The actor gives his statement, but the evidence tells an entirely different story. As the pressure from the tenth floor of LAPD headquarters mounts, demanding a quick resolution of the case, Drew wonders why the brass chose him to lead the investigation. Then, just when he thinks he's building momentum on the case, things go sideways when an old nemesis in the command staff blind sides him. At odds with his superiors, and distracted by a simmering romance that starts to boil over in the middle of the investigation, Howard is as off balance as he's ever been. Running on instinct and his commitment to getting justice for every victim, and with everything to lose, Drew must prove himself not just by clearing the case by arrest, but by surviving it.