As Joe Lehrer accepts an award from the Stradford Schools PTA, a Russian drug gang fire-bombs a house in his neighborhood. Joe doesn’t realize the house was a drug distribution site, but does know he earned the award for exposing a prostitution ring that preyed on high school girls.
Back at Stradford High School, Joe gets ribbed about the award by his fellow teachers. Beneath the mirth, the teachers are stressed their salary may depend upon State Test results. A rumor spreads that Administrator Mel Reynolds is aiming to fire another teacher. Joe feels he will be forced to remedy both situations, for he is “Educator of the Year.”
In Florida former mayor Alfred Hellauer is uncomfortable with how his sister, Kimberly, is handling things as his replacement, and restrains his henchman, Karl, from returning to Stradford. Junk dealer Oskar Brummelberger blames Joe for the death of his daughter.
Joe made a deal with the devil and is chafing under it. He has pictures that would destroy Kimberly’s career and is using them to blackmail her; he forces her to agree to a new contract for the teachers, and they celebrate him for that. But he is part of the cover-up: he allowed her to keep her job as long as she paid for the rehabilitation of the abused school girls.
The pressure affect’s Joe’s personal life. Lexan Warner feels safe with him, but is frustrated that he spends so much time in politics. His best friend Bob McCauley feels Joe has drifted away, and is too interested in the limelight to help him with his research into school spending. When Lexan, Bob and fellow teacher Roberta join an opioid crisis action group with BCI Agent Canfield and police Lt. Kramer, Joe is too busy to help. In the classroom Joe is distracted, and he rejects the advice of childhood friend, Father Jerry Hastings.
Kimberly’s mentor is the Governor of Ohio, Thompson Stanic. Their plan is for him to run for national office and for her to succeed him. The needed funds will come from skimming State Testing funds from schools across Ohio. They need to avoid negative publicity and that means silencing Joe Lehrer.
Karl returns to Stradford and retaliates against one of the drug gangs. This earns him the role of Kimberly’s consigliere. He plans to use Oskar to eliminate Joe, and become more powerful.
Joe and Lexan are growing apart. She is excited by her work with the drug task force and disappointed that Joe isn’t. While chaperoning the Winter Formal Bob is caught examining official files by Mel Radburn. Lexan shocks Bert by saying she is leaving Joe. As she packs her bags later, she reveals her childhood abuse. When Joe returns, they argue, and she leaves.
Joe’s sadness is interrupted by violence. Oskar appears and shoots him. Karl watches and kills Oskar with Joe’s gun, staging it to look like they killed each other. Karl retrieves both sets of incriminating pictures to strengthen Kimberly’s trust.
Joe and Oskar arrive on gurneys as Bert, Bob and Lexan wait in the ER. Joe is alive, but in a coma with a head wound. Lexan blames herself. Her grief turns to anger, and she attacks Kimberly, and Bob must restrain her.
Lexan descends through the stages of guilt. She watches the machines keep Joe alive and drinks alone in a dive bar. She talks to Kramer about the shooting and argues with her friends about retaliation. She rejects the counsel of Fr. Hastings.
Lexan’s grief boils over into anger again, and she attacks the mayor at a press conference. She is suspended from work and spends her days ‘conversing’ with the comatose Joe.
Canfield, Kramer and the teachers realize there are in fact two drug gangs in Stradford, and hope they have two trails to follow. Karl secures Chief Mangione’s permission to bring the gangs together. He believes he can broker an agreement, keep violence off the streets, and vault himself into a leadership position. His attempt ends in death. The meeting is actually a trap; one gang kills the other, and Mangione’s SWAT team eliminates the survivors. Karl dies in a hail of bullets.
Kimberly and Mangione use the shoot-out to declare that the drug crisis in Stradford is over. Canfield and Kramer are stumped. They tail Lexan and watch her buy pills from a drug runner. The news gets to the mayor and she is ecstatic; soon Joe will die and now she can get rid of Lexan. She documents Lexan’s drug buy, but can’t refrain from bragging and incriminating herself to the teacher.
Joe awakens from his coma and Lexan rushes to his side. Meanwhile, Governor Stanic sends his Ready Team to Stradford fearing Kimberly will expose their illegal activities. His aide suggests having Kimberly kill Joe and Lexan so he can be rid of all of them.
Bob and Mel Radburn have researched the money trail from the state tests and uncover Kimberly’s theft. Canfield and Kramer learn that Lexan secretly recorded her conversation with Kimberly proving she was involved in the prostitution and a related killing. Before they can arrest her, she attacks Joe and Lexan in their home.
Kimberly’s plan is to shoot them with drug-infused darts; they won’t die, but will be imprisoned as drug dealers. During the fight both teachers are hurt. When Joe wakes up, Kimberly is dead, and Lexan and her luggage are gone.
Mangione and Kimberly’s friend, Pamela, hold a press conference again assuring the citizens of Stradford the drug crisis is over; the mayor died as a drug-fighting heroine.
Joe takes a leave of absence and travels to the East coast. Lexan heads south to reconcile with or kill her father, the man who abused her as a child. The choice is taken from her when he dies of a stroke. As usual, Lexan flees.
Joe and Lexan accidentally meet in Bethany Beach, Delaware. They come together to save the life of an injured man not realizing the other is there. They realize more importantly that they can’t keep secrets from each other, and plan their return, together, to Stradford.
