 In Santa Monica, California, the former detective Jesse Stone moves to Paradise, Massachusetts with his old dog Boomer, after having drinking problem on duty. He is invited by the Paradise s powerful counselor Hastings Hathaway to be the substitute for the former Chief Lou Carson, who had an earlier retirement. In his first assignment, he hits the abusive husband Joe Genest, who has not respected a restraint order. The local attorney Abby Taylor visits him after the incident and they have an affair. When Lou is killed, Chief Jesse Stone suspects of the mobster Joe and Hastings, and plots a situation trying to disclose the truth.