Harm meets with a Russian 'contact' in order to purchase documents that will prove his father was taken to Russia after being shot down in Vietnam. However, during the transaction, they are interrupted by a KGB agent, Col. Parlovsky who shoots & kills the Russian, then runs off as FBI agents show up, finding Harm over the body, with the gun & documents he wrestled away.

As the FBI wants to hold him for the murder of the Russian, Adm. Chegwiggen manages to have Harm transferred to a military brig, and court-martialed, much to the dismay of the FBI agents. CIA agent Clayton Webb, knowing that it was Parlovsky, not Harm that committed the shooting, arranges for Harm to escape from custody in hopes Parlovsky will contact Harm.

In the end, Parlovsky makes contact with Harm, but they both get away before Webb can catch them. Parlovsky tells Harm the documents were a fake and burns them. He then leaves, refusing to help clear Harm of the shooting.

Millions of viewers are turned into witnesses when they see a Marine guard shoot an arrested terrorist on live television, and its Harms job to defend him. With Mac on the prosecution, she and Harm are pitted against each other in what seems like an open and shut case of cold-blooded murder. But when Harm is replaced by a civilian attorney with a defense plan that doesnt add up and whose fees are being paid by a wealthy right wing industrialist, Percival Bertram. Harm decides to do some investigating of his own.