When Blair's mother Naomi secretly submits her son's Sentinel thesis paper to a publisher, Jim discovers that being famous can be detrimental to your health. While Jim and Blair protect a local union leader named Jack Bartley from attempts on his life, information from Blair's paper is leaked to the press and Ellison is caught in the middle of a media frenzy.

Professional thief Harry wants to see his daughter and grandson one last time, but his position on the FBI's Most Wanted list makes that difficult - especially when another thief is using his MO and has killed two cops during a job.

When retired television actor Vince Deal suspects that one of his friends has been murdered he enlists the help of Jim Ellison.

A present day murder leads to a revelation that may be able to finally clear up a 45 year old murder, and vindicate the victim and the boy (now a troubled, haunted man) who saw it happen. And Jim discovers a new ability.

When Internal Affairs accuses him of stealing money captured in local drug busts, Ellison finds that during this case he's forced to answer the hard questions instead of asking them.

Ellison knows that the city is in for trouble when Garrett Kincaid, the leader of the Sunrise Patriots militia group, escapes from prison. While Jim tracks the escaped convict, Captain Banks, Daryl Banks, and Blair Sandburg attend a Cascade Jaguars' basketball game.

It appears that Brad Ventriss and Suzanne Nadine, two students in Blair's anthropology class, are engaged in some extracurricular activities that aren't listed in any of the college handbooks.

Blair, Banks, and Megan may be Jim's only hope of overcoming the superhuman stalemate and returning Cascade to a one sentinel town.