Grace Hanadarko is an alcoholic, chain-smoking, self-hating Oklahoma City police detective on a self-destructive downward spiral. Grace is carrying on an affair with her married detective partner, Ham, and occasionally looks after her 12-year-old nephew Clay, who's mother was killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Grace also happens to be an atheist having renounced God following the 1995 bombing, but gets along with most of her co-workers including forensic specialist Rhetta, a deeply religious family woman, but is estranged from the rest of her family including ...
Grace attempts to bond more with her 11-year-old nephew Clay, and gives him some tips for an upcoming kissing party. A motel manager is murdered, and the motel housekeeper suspected seeks protection in a church, claiming it was self defense. Captain Perry, a old friend of Grace's from her days in Oklahoma City's vice squad, arrives to take the place of the late Lieutenant Yukon in Major Crimes. Grace gets some helpful hints from Pippa-the-prostitute and a moral nut case who videotapes hookers and johns. Meanwhile, Earl sets up a multitude of religious shrines in ...
A 17-year-old devout Christian fundamentalist comes under attack just days before he's scheduled to testify in a murder trial. In order to ensure his safety, Grace allows him to move in with her. But Grace can only handle so much preaching, so she ropes the guys into helping her watch over him. Meanwhile, Grace gets angry when Earl uses the death row inmate, Leon Cooley, and her nephew, Clay, to get her attention.
Grace's Aunt Cathy comes to town toting baggage of a different kind, and Grace sets out to prevent her ruining a weekend dedicated to the memory of her father. At work, the team investigates the disappearance of a bronze bull.
A burned body buried face down with an owl feather send the team searching for the killer of a veteran, and Grace's grandfather shows signs of dementia.
Following a police shootout with a drug dealer's gang that leaves a policeman dead and Grace seriously wounded, she has a near-death experience, and becomes determined to help the team track down the gang responsible. Meanwhile, Leon becomes more conflicted and angry when his ex-wife wants to re-marry and her fiancée wants to legally adopt their teenage son.
The murder of a young woman hits very close to home for Grace, Rhetta attempts to interpret her collection from Earl, and Ham finds Grace in a compromising position.
When a mentally disabled man is shot to death because he was brandishing a wooden gun at a robbery, Grace has to bond with his friend to track down who put the fake gun in the victim's hand.
A hotshot Los Angeles defense attorney comes to town determined to free his client, and his tactics begin to fracture the team as he exposes deep secrets of each of the members.
Grace's family is in town, but her priorities shift when her sister Paige looks to be involved in a murder, and Earl's trinkets are deciphered with life changing results.