Jean McBride, an old flame of Joe Mannix' who still lives in his hometown of Summer Grove, appears in his office one evening. Jean is married to Troy McBride, who once quarterbacked the Summer Grove football team on which Mannix also played. But now a double-tragedy has befallen Troy -- he is in an iron lung as a result of an accident, and has also been charged with murder. Mannix accompanies him and Jean back to Summer Grove to assist in the defense of the murder charge -- but his return home also forces Mannix to deal with unresolved conflicts with his father, from whom he has been estranged for many years.
—aldanoli