A murder victim’s body is hidden inside a trunk and dumped on a New York City street. Det Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) freezes during a shoot-out. Det. Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) proposes to Dianne Russell (Kim Delaney). Medavoy binges before dieting. Greg Medavoy (Gorden Clapp) enjoys eating fattening foods before he and Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) begin dieting together. But Sipowicz’s postponements extend the bingeing so long that Medavoy gains a great deal of weight. A beautiful Puerto Rican P.A.A., Gina Colon, catches Det. James Martinez’s eye (Nicholas Turturro). Colon is assigned to the Anti-Crime unit upstairs. Meanwhile, another woman, Geri Turner, begins her job as Donna’s replacement.

A man claims his infant daughter was kidnapped. Simone offers a troubled tenant assistance. Medavoy and Sipowicz begin their competitive diet. Martinez and Gotelli vie for the Squad Delegate position. Simone, who inherited an apartment building, pays a visit to Henry Coffield (the son of his deceased wife’s aunt). With the building having been assessed as practically valueless, Henry shows little interest in speaking with Simone. He does admit to being afraid of answering his own door, fearful that someone might shoot him through the peep hole. When Simone offers his assistance, Coffield tells him to leave. Gotelli beats up a Puerto Rican man, Nene Lopez, after a female witness claims she saw Lopez run from the pizzeria holding the missing infant. Lopez vehemently denies any involvement. The female witness, Mrs. Valentin, identifies Lopez from a police line-up. But in a fit of anger, she also accuses him of hooking her sister on heroin. The detectives realize Valentin falsely identified Lopez as an act of revenge.

The detectives reopen a five-year-old armed robbery case that may have led to the conviction of an innocent man. Simone continues his search for the perpetrator who murdered a tenant in his apartment building. Martinez learns the results of the Delegate election. Simone broaches the subject of the stove factory robbery to Sipowicz, anticipating a dismissive response. Instead, Andy recounts how George Harper, who headed the investigation, took disability leave after suffering “injuries” in a very low-speed collision while sitting in a department vehicle. Detective Savino approaches Simone about the woman murdered in his apartment building. Having run into a dead end, Savino asks Simone for his help.

The detectives reopen a five-year-old armed robbery case that may have led to the conviction of an innocent man. Simone continues his search for the perpetrator who murdered a tenant in his apartment building. Martinez learns the results of the Delegate election. Simone broaches the subject of the stove factory robbery to Sipowicz, anticipating a dismissive response. Instead, Andy recounts how George Harper, who headed the investigation, took disability leave after suffering “injuries” in a very low-speed collision while sitting in a department vehicle. Detective Savino approaches Simone about the woman murdered in his apartment building. Having run into a dead end, Savino asks Simone for his help.

The detectives investigate the shooting death of an African-American community activist to whom Sipowicz once uttered a racial slur. Medavoy and Martinez investigate a slaying at a bodega used as a front for illegal activity. Simone and Sipowicz canvas a New York City street where two African-American men were gunned down inside their car. Sipowicz recognizes one of the victims as Kwasi, a community activist to whom he once uttered a racial slur. The second D.O.A. is identified as Prince, a known drug dealer. Witnesses tell police that three men were inside the vehicle when shooting erupted. The detectives find Kwasi’s daughter, Hanna, sitting o a stoop outside her father’s apartment building. They decide not to inform Hanna of her father’s death, and instead contact her mother, Mrs. Torrance. Remembering Sipowicz from the racial slur incident, Mrs. Torrance instructs her daughter not to speak to the detective. Instead, Hanna tells Russell that her father was trying to help her Uncle Jerome shortly before the murder. The detectives find Jerome inside his apartment hiding in a closet.

The detectives search for two men involved in the shooting death of an ex-fireman turned chauffeur. Kirkendall investigates a possible child abduction. The detectives are called to the scene of a homicide in the no-man’s-land beneath F.D.R. Drive. Several vagrants describe seeing two men, one wearing a cowboy hat, having an argument with a chauffeur the previous night. Jill Kirkendall, a transfer from the Department of Investigations, is assigned her first case. She assists Aries Mitchell, who claims his life was threatened by a man named Bernard Mays. Aries explains that Mays is the brother of his old girlfriend, Brenda. One day, out of the blue, Bernard accused him of fathering Brenda’s newborn—and threatened to throw him off a roof if he did not marry his sister. Aries insists he is not the child’s father.

A mother claims her mentally-retarded daughter was raped. Sipowicz fears the worst when an odd man who speaks in gibberish expresses concern over his mother. Russell grows increasingly uncomfortable with her undercover assignment after an innocent man is assaulted. Simone and Sipowicz assist Thelma Morris, who claims her beautiful, mentally-retarded daughter Annette was raped. Thelma explains that, the previous evening, Annette had returned home with her clothes disheveled and barricaded herself inside her bedroom. Simone convinces Annette to come out of the room. At the station house, the detectives interview Annette about what transpired the previous evening. The girl describes how she met four teenage males at a coffee shop, and then accompanied them to a hotel. There she consumed alcohol, and after growing sleepy,laid down on a bed. The four teenagers then forced her to have oral sex.

Lt. Arthur Fancy (James McDaniel) aids a teenager arrested for heroin possession. Simone and Sipowicz target an ex-con whom witnesses identify as a murder suspect. Medavoy’s friend Abby drops a bombshell. The detectives investigate the murder of a young male, Willie Lopez, on an East Village street corner. Two transvestite prostitutes, Peaches and Angela, are identified by the Vice squad as potential witnesses. Both men deny they know the identity of the shooter. But the detectives believe otherwise and transport the pair to the station house. Maceo Williams, a sixteen-year-old teenager who once stayed with Fancy and his wife for several months, is arrested for heroin possession. Fancy pays the boy a visit in his holding cell. During their discussion, Maceo denies he was drug-running for his junkie mother.

A Polish-American couple become the prime suspects in a murder investigation. Residents of a close-knit neighborhood are mysteriously closemouthed regarding the death of one of their own. Russell realizes she was drugged by Liery. Russell awakens in Jimmy Liery’s bedroom and sees her clothing neatly folded on a chair nearby. Suspecting the worst, Russell asks Liery what transpired the previous evening. In characteristic fashion, Liery refuses to reveal if he did, in fact, drug and rape Russell. Simone and Sipowicz investigate the strangulation death of Kathryn Dabrowski, whose body was discovered by a cleaning lady, Mildred Superczynski. Len, the building’s Superintendent, reveals that Dabrowski and her boyfriend, Dick Manzak, often argued. The detectives arrest Manzak, an alcoholic, after he grows belligerent during questioning. Manzak admits he would occasionally strike Dabrowski during their altercations. When Simone and Sipowicz reveal that Dabrowski was strangled, Manzak, grief-stricken, begins cooperating. He reveals that Kathryn caught her maid, Mildred, stealing her belongings on several occasions.

Simone jeopardizes Russell's undercover assignment by taking Liery into custody. The detectives discover drug addicts auctioning-off a dead man's possessions-with the corpse still inside the room. A murder witness puts his life on the line in an attempt to ensnare a mob boss's underlings. Liery's next door neighbor tells Kirkendall she heard a loud noise emanate from Liery's apartment-and later discovered a bullet in her wall. Simone tells Kirkendall he will handle the complaint personally. Marco, a fourteen-year-old Puerto Rican boy, is arrested for shoplifting. Marco tells detectives he will reveal the location of a corpse if the shoplifting charges are dropped. Walter Hoyt, who witnessed a mob hit years earlier, tells Sipowicz that Frank Pisciotta's men broke into his apartment and stole his portfolio of artwork. Pisciotta offered to return the paintings-with the proviso that Hoyt is out of the country during his trial (Hoyt is scheduled to testify against Pisciotta).

Detectives fear the worst when a woman carrying a jewelry consignment disappears. Gina is wounded during a rape attempt. Jerry Silverton and Hyman Kozler, two diamond merchants, approach Simone and Sipowicz. Kozler explains how he consigned 1.4 million dollars worth of jewelry to Silverton's sister, Alice. Shortly thereafter, Alice disappeared. Both men agree that the person responsible is Alice's boyfriend, Fred Morgan. Silverton and Kozler are aware that Morgan told Alice he had interested a buyer in the jewels.

Tension mounts within the precinct when Sipowicz and Simone investigate a policeman who witnessed-and may have been involved in-a double homicide. Kirkendall and Medavoy investigate the death of a model who appeared in a fetish video. Martinez comforts Gina when she is released from the hospital. Sipowicz finds Russell sitting in a booth at a coffee shop. In a voice mixing shame with yearning, Russell admits she is in desperate need of a drink. But Sipowicz convinces her alcohol will only worsen her emotional turmoil. Sipowicz and Simone are dispatched to investigate a double homicide on a city street. Mike Zorzi, an off-duty police officer who moonlights as a bodyguard, describes the incident. Zorzi, who was hired to protect Tony Moore, a well-known Italian singer, was inside a nearby market buying cigarettes when two Latino men approached Moore.

Geri Turner approaches Sipowicz about the death of a close friend, Tom Konigsberg, who lived in an apartment on Bleecker Street. She found the man's body hanging by the neck, a victim of autoerotic asphyxia. Knowing Sipowicz strongly dislikes the kinky Geri, Fancy assigns the case to Russell and Kirkendall. The detectives examine the victim's corpse, which is bound with leather straps and dressed in women's clothing. A landlady and a clerk at a sex shop both identify Geri as Konigsberg's friend.

Simone and Sipowicz are dispatched to a salvage yard. There they examine the nude body of a young blond woman that was found inside the trunk of an automobile scheduled for compaction. The owner of the lot, Bill Kehoe, provides detectives with the license plate number of a car he saw parked near the yard the previous evening. Kehoe believes the driver of the vehicle may hide the corpse inside the trunk. The detectives determine that the victim's name is Antoinette Todd. Her boyfriend, Tim Dolan, filed a missing-persons report three days earlier, the same time he notified police that his car had been stolen. The license plate number provided by Kehoe matches Dolan's car. An autopsy reveals Todd had been strangled, raped and burned.

Fancy and his wife are pulled over by Officer Szymanski after they are spotted driving through the streets of Queens with a burnt-out taillight. Szymanski orders both occupants to step out of the vehicle and to place their hands on the hood. Fancy maintains his composure as his wife complies with the humiliating command.

Simone and Sipowicz are called to the scene after two garbage men find the partially-clad body of a woman lying in an alleyway near a dumpster. They discover signs that the female victim died of strangulation. They also note evidence of sexual assault. The death is similar to two rape-strangulation murders that occurred in another precinct (the perpetrator, Gerald Salter, confessed to the crimes). Later, Simone and Sipowicz interview Salter about the murder, but he insists he did not kill the victim. A man named Earl Dawkins contacts Missing Persons about the disappearance of his wife, Marina (who fits the description of the victim). Earl accompanies detectives to the morgue, where he identifies the body. Simone and Sipowicz interview a Russian woman at the cafe where Marina was employed. The woman explains that Marina was having an affair with a Russian man, Vitali Gomelsky. Gomelsky tells detectives that Marina was a Russian mail-order bride. He believes that Earl killed Marina after she announced her intention to get a divorce. A medical examiner’s report indicates trauma to Marina’s genital area, but no evidence of penetration.

A woman is reluctant to identify her gangster-boyfriend’s killers. Inspector Bass pressures Fancy for a quick arrest after a man with political connections is found murdered. Detetives suspect an infant may have been shaken to death by a baby-sitter. Simone and Sipowicz investigate the shooting death of Tony Perez, a twenty-three-year-old gang member. Three men opened fire on Perez as he walked down a street with his pregnant girlfriend, Wanda Diaz. Wanda is reluctant to cooperate with the investigation, fearing retaliation from the killers. A man named Milo Guzman, who was arrested for robbing a fast food restaurant, offers to provide information about shooting in exchange for special consideration from the District Attorney. Guzman states that Perez was a member of a gang called the Latin Kings. After falling in love with Diaz, Perez decided he wanted out of the Kings. But in order to resign, he had to receive permission from the King’s Crown Jewel.

A transvestite prostitute is assaulted by his boyfriend. Kirkendall comes to the aid of an old high school friend who stole from her parents to fund her drug habit. Fancy reluctantly sells his wife’s franchise products to his staff. Angela, a Latino drag queen, and Peaches, an African-American transvestite, enter the station house. Angela, whose face is bruised and swollen, explains that her boyfriend, Jimmy Corbone, lost his temper after he (Angela) changed his mind about having a sex change operation. Angela reluctantly files a complaint against his lover. Fancy enters the station house carrying a bag filled with a variety of franchise products, such as vitamins and shampoos. He explains that his wife, Lillian, asked him to bring the samples to work. Fearing that his staff might feel he is taking advantage of his position as their boss, he repeatedly cautions that no one is under any obligation to make a purchase.

A rap star wounded in a hold-up refuses to cooperate with detectives. Fancy is caught in the middle when a drug dealer accuses Szymanski of robbery. Abby tells Medavoy her true intentions. Simone and Sipowicz begin their shift several hours early, having had little sleep. They investigate a shooting incident that sent Daddy Kool, a rap star, to the hospital. The detectives suspect the singer and his bodyguard, Boo, were held-up by a man who committed a string of armed robberies. The victims, however, claim not to have seen their attacker. Sipowicz suspects Kool is deliberately disinterested in catching the thief, as his notoriety—and CD sales—will benefit from what his audience will perceive as a rap music turf war.

The detectives investigate a multiple homicide at a nightclub. A man rapes his twelve-year-old stepdaughter. Simone and Sipowicz are dispatched to the Ecuador Club, where dozens of Ecuadorian men and women are being detained by police. On the floor are three bodies: two male and one female. The club owner, Mr. Ibarra, and a waiter, Hector Villanueva, describe how two white males entered the bar with guns. As the robbers took money from patrons, they suddenly began shooting their weapons. Villanueva claims he never saw the men before, but the detectives sense he is hiding information.

Simone is investigated by Internal Affairs. A nervous building superintendent places his own life in jeopardy after he identifies a violent tenant as the perpetrator of an assault. The detectives realize a drunken Gotelli commandeered—and crashed—a city bus. Martinez and Medavoy are dispatched to investigate an incident in which an as-yet-unidentified man commandeered a city bus and crashed it into an alleyway. A witness describes the perpetrator as a tall, lumbering Italian man who frequents a tavern called the Alibi Lounge. Internal Affairs launches an investigation after Simone uses a computer to run an unauthorized license plate check. Simone finds himself caught in the middle: he cannot explain his actions to Martens due to the F.B.I.’s ongoing probe of Internal Affairs (the Bureau believes Salvo is partnered with a plant somewhere in I.A.B.). However, Agent Kriegel assures Simone the Bureau will protect his job. Meanwhile, Sipowicz grows increasingly agitated at being kept in the dark regarding his partner’s unusual activities.

Simone’s involvement in an internal undercover operation jeopardizes his career. A psychiatrist becomes the prime suspect in death of one of his patients. A Britisher critical of American police enforcement reports a stolen wallet. Simone’s involvement in the FBI’s undercover probe of Joe Salvo’s connections to I.A.B. grows increasingly complex. He is approached by John Shannon, who questions him about running an unauthorized computer check on a license plate (as requested by Salvo). Simone phrases his response carefully in an attempt not to expose the undercover operation. Sipowicz and Russell are called to the scene of a homicide after a woman’s body is discovered in a vacant lot. Sipowicz notices an unidentified white foam dripping from the victim’s mouth. Sipowicz and Russell receive a break in their case when Dr. Herbert Wentzel, a psychiatrist, arrives at the precinct to warn police that one of his patients, Christine Lakos, may be at risk of committing suicide. Wentzel claims he grew concerned with Lakos missed one of her appointments. The detectives immediately suspect Wentzel’s involvement.