Black police officer Russell Stevens applies for a special anti-drug squad which targets the highest boss of cocaine delivery to LA—the Colombian foreign minister's nephew. Russell works his way up from the bottom undercover, until he reaches the boss.

When the police finds a necklace with some criminal, a detective remembers that it was missing evidence in a murderer case many years ago. So it turns out that Jeff Hayes, sentenced to life-long prison, was innocent. After 18 years in jail he's finally released - but has problems finding back into normal life. There's his father who believed him guilty and his ex-wife Ellen, who told their son Kerry and her new husband Paul Kramer his father had died.

Former 1960s flower children Steven and Elyse Keaton raise their conservative son Alex, daughters Mallory and Jennifer, and later, youngest child Andrew.