Los Angeles. 1983. A storm is coming and its name is crack. Set against the infancy of the crack cocaine epidemic and its ultimate radical impact on the culture as we know it, the story follows numerous characters on a violent collision course.

A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.

Emile Brockton enjoys TV, chicken pot pies, and...well, not much else. His life has become a meaningless procession of banal activities that prompt him to spice things up the only way he can devise: by killing himself. However, the road to suicide is filled with many distractions, and these create the ultimate conundrum for Emile.

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.