After thirteen years away, Thomas returns to Tidewater to attend the funeral of his beloved grandfather, Everett, and reopens a long-running family feud when he suspects his stepfather of stealing and selling a missing family heirloom -- a letter from Abraham Lincoln.

Thomas' luck takes a tumble when he injures his ankle while training for an upcoming charity sports event, and if his foot doesn't heal in time, his place will be taken for the race. But his luck looks set to fall even more when he finds that prostitute Leslie Emery, who he met when he was working as a hotel detective, has now given up working as a call-girl and has recently taken a job as a waitress at the King Kamehameha Club, and wants to hire him to help her find her missing sister, who is also a hooker. Although she is well-meaning, Leslie's 'act now, think later' ways have proven to cause nothing but problems for Thomas, and sure enough, in next to no time they are up to their necks in chaos, as they uncover that Leslie's missing sister is involved with well-known, powerful political figures...

Higgins is driving visiting Pamela Bates - an old editor friend of Robin Master's - along with her friend, and her secretary, to the Estate, when someone tries to run them off the road and over a cliff. But Pamela insists on waiting for her own mainland investigator friend famous crime mystery writer Jessica Fletcher.

The crossover continues on Murder, She Wrote S03E08 Magnum on Ice (II).

Masters is sued by a man who tripped at a recent party on the estate; as Thomas begins to investigate the man, who seems to be a professional at making false claims, a loud-mouth businessman for whom T.C. is piloting pays Thomas to take his perky fiancée along on the case with him; when the man they're investigating is killed in a hit-and-run incident, they find themselves on an even bigger case involving a dangerous Mob figure; while Thomas's new partner means well, her over-eagerness doesn't exactly help matters.

Lieutenant Tanaka is murdered while working undercover. The official Police report states that Tanaka died in a car accident, but Thomas believes that something is being covered up, and sets about trying to answer the many questions about his friend Tanaka's death, uncovering switched identities and drug-running in the process...

When Higgins asks his help in finding Robin's latest manuscript after it is stolen, Thomas gets some unexpected help in the case when St. Louis P.I. Luther Gillis arrives unannounced on vacation. They set about trying to work out who is so desperate to get hold of the manuscript that they are willing to resort to attempting to kill Higgins and drugging Zeus and Apollo to get it, in scenes reminiscent of those portrayed in the stolen book...