Althea Tibbs gets concerned when student Jana Craven gets caught skipping school for the fifth time. Althea is worried about her home life so she tries to get in touch with the girl's parents but is unsuccessful. Chief Gillespie and Althea are surprised to find no furniture, no appliances and no parents when they show up at Jana's home. When Chief Gillespie sends out several officers to Jana's house to find any evidence on where her parents could have gone, they instead find a body buried in the basement who turns out to be the girl's father. Jana's mother Colleen Craven is still no where to be found. With an ambitious district attorney who is eager to charge Jana with the murder, Chief Gillespie and Detective Virgil Tibbs travels to Jackson, Mississippi to question Jana's uncle on his sister Colleen's whereabouts.
—mts77