Optimist Sally Sullivan, a recently widowed mother of two supporting her family as a waitress in a working-class diner, talks her way into a job as assistant to grumpy, cynical private eye Bernie Fox.
Sally is eager to try a little more detecting, and inadvertently gets her own client while waiting for Bernie in his office. It seems the client's husband may be seeing another woman, and she wants Sally to find out.
Sally stumbles on a rich man's plot to murder his wife, and rushes off to Bernie for help stopping it. Bernie is not so easily convinced, especially without any real evidence, but he reluctantly agrees to help investigate.
Why anyone would want to burn Ivory's music store is beyond Bernie, but the uninsured charred remains testify that someone did. Ivory is wiped out, and Bernie is angry. The trail leads to some very nasty customers people who could do a lot of harm.
Bernie's morbid fear of hospitals causes him to bring in Sally to investigate the circumstances of an old man's will. He has left a lot of money to the nurse, but did she exert undue influence?
When Sally and Bernie set up a stake-out on a hotel room, they spy some pretty unusual goings-on. What can they make of the little bits they can see? And who is the dangerous-looking man who is also spying on their quarry?
Sally's brother-in-law turns up on the run from gangsters, needing a place to hide, and a chance to say goodbye to his niece and nephew before he leaves the country. Sally asks Bernie for his help, and together they cook up a scheme to save Brendan's life.
Bernie knows it is a little shady to be searching the prosecutor's office on behalf of the defense attorney, but it's either that or let an innocent man go to jail. He does not want Sally involved, until he finds himself locked out on the window ledge.
A twenty-year-old letter from a bank robber to his girlfriend seems to be a clue as to where he hid the money before he was killed, but Bernie has no way to understand the code. He gets Sally to deliver the letter to the woman, so he can follow her.
Three women don't look like the type to be breaking into safes in the middle of the night, but it seems Rose is Alfred's wife, famous for designing break-ins. Bernie, who owes Alfred a few favours, has to warn the women before they are caught.
Vic Stephens has had his neck in a brace ever since his car accident, but the insurance company thinks he's faking. It's up to Sally and Bernie to find out the truth. Try as they might, they just cannot seem to make him slip up.
Marie's friend Blair wants to see her biological father just one more time before she moves away with her foster family. However, Sally discovers the dad does not want to be found.