Something's wrong at the Rileys. Married nearly 30 years, Doug and Lois rarely talk. She doesn't leave their Indianapolis home, and she's ordered a gravestone with their names and birth years on it. He has a long-time Thursday night mistress whom he invites to go with him to a plumbing supply conference in New Orleans. Once there, Doug calls Lois to say he's staying for a while. What's he leaving behind and what's he looking for in New Orleans? And Lois, can she break out?

Manipulative police lieutenant Phoebe McNamara is a success as hostage negotiator, but drove ex-husband Roy squires away, so she and their toddler daughter Carly live with her devoted ma Essie. Systematic self-righteous verbal abuse of uniformed cops leads to a grim feud with one of them, cocky Arnie Meeks. Captain David McVee and businessman-philanthropist Duncan Swift, her patient lover, side with her and the assumption Meeks is behind a violence wave targeting her, but that proves dead-wrong.