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Having to process paperwork after a drug bust, Cagney and Lacey can't join Officer Manelli for lunch at a Japanese restaurant he just discovered. A man enters the restaurant through the backdoor and shoots Manelli in the back. The execution-style killing of a police officer causes uproar among the members of the force and the office of Lt. Samuels becomes the center for a large manhunt.

Isbecki still finds the time to form the precinct's softball team, desperately trying to hide this fact from Cagney. He wants no women on his team. When Cagney finally hears about it, she is insulted by Isbecki's attitude. Mary Beth Lacey has other things on her mind: she finds it more and more difficult to organize her domestic responsibilities, certainly now that the manhunt takes up so much time.

A print on the murder weapon reveals the name of the killer: Arnold Cream, a hitman for the mob. Why would the mob want to kill Manelli? Lt. Samuels orders Cagney and Lacey to visit Manelli's widow and look out for signs of conspicuous consumption. Perhaps Manelli accepted bribes from the mob. Cagney and Lacey reluctantly follow the lieutenant's orders and find no evidence that Manelli might have been "dirty".

Cagney interviews Arnold Cream's uncle, Dino Lampella, and is shocked by the man's lack of respect for the dead policeman. Her day gets slightly better when Isbecki asks her to join the softball team after all. But then she hears that the league forces Isbecki to put women on his team.

The next day Samuels asks the detectives to make some calls on behalf of the District Attorney about issues that have nothing to do with the Manelli case. But Cagney recognizes one of the names: Peter Caswell was a witness to the shooting. Samuels explains that Caswell has been subpoenaed by a grand jury in connection with an investigation into mob activities. Caswell was the accountant for shipping firms that may be controlled by the mob. Cagney realizes that Manelli was never meant to be the victim of the shooting; the hitman was after Caswell.

Cagney and Lacey visit the Caswell residence in the suburbs. Mrs. Caswell informs them that her husband has gone into hiding. Then the detectives get a break. Arnold Cream's cousin can supply them with the address of Cream's hiding place. They find an empty flat, but some car rental receipts and a map of the area around Caswell's house tell them that Mrs. Caswell is in danger.

They arrive too late and a neighbor describes how Mrs. Caswell left with a tall man. As they have the information of the car rental receipt, the detectives put out an all points bulletin on the car of Cream. It gets traced quickly and followed to a garage in the city. There Cream meets Peter Caswell, who believes that he can pay a ransom for his wife. In reality, Cream just wants to shoot Caswell, but he is stopped by the arrival of Cagney and Lacey. He then holds Mrs. Caswell hostage and it takes some convincing talk from Lacey to make him give himself up.

The episode ends with the first softball game of the precinct team. To everybody's surprise Mary Beth Lacey scores a homerun on her first attempt.