When personal trainer Harry Slade is murdered, Matlock agrees to defend his roofer, George Wilton, on the condition that George finish Matlock's roof like he promised. The case is complicated when it turns out that not only was Harry sleeping with beautiful blonde DeeDee, but also Bridget Laird, and Harry's wife and step-daughter!

After Brian Martell is arrested and charged with the murder of Arthur Kendall, Matlock decides to get involved because, years earlier, his father Charlie had been a suspect in the murder of Arthur's father Jake -- a murder Brian's father Lee was convicted of. Brian is convinced that Matlock is doing it to make up for Lee spending years in prison for a crime that Charlie Matlock convicted, but Matlock swears neither man committed the crime. While investigating the murder of the playwright, their trail soon leads to the woman he was having an affair with, and her very angry son young son.

Although Josh Winfield confessed to the murder of Arthur Kendall, it doesn't take long for the police to blow holes in his story. Matlock then has Conrad take a closer look at Yolanda Bergstrom, the woman Kendall had been with not long before he died, and Conrad then finds there is another connection between Yolanda and Kendall -- her sister Sabrina. Leanne remains convinced that Charlie Matlock had nothing to do with Jake Kendall's murder, and she, Brian and Matlock all investigate the thirty year old case. Matlock continues to date Elaine, trying desperately to be the healthy, fit man he thinks she wants.

Matlock witnesses a robbery at a convenience store, but when things start happening that make him look like he's losing it, including messing with his papers, sending him to the wrong parties, and submitting phony pictures of his hind end to the papers, Matlock begins to realise that someone is trying to set him up. He, Cliff and Conrad begin to go through some of his old cases, trying to figure out which recently released killer is out to get him, but everyone they think of seems to have an alibi.