In 1944, in the midst of World War II, a disastrous explosion rocked the U.S. Navy's Port Chicago near San Francisco, hugging more than 350 sailors, most of them African-Americans. Following the blast, a group of 50 sailors refused to return to work until changes were made to assure their safety. They were charged with mutiny and court martialed, but later their convictions were reversed. Now, a surviving sailor wants his record and those of all the other "mutineers" cleared. Asked to handle the investigation discreetly, Cmdr. Turner discovers that an injustice was done and goes head-to-head with Lt. Singer in the courtroom. Meanwhile, Harm goes house shopping with Lt. Sims.
After being diagnosed with night blindness, Lt. Cmdr. Harmon Rabb, an F-14 Tomcat fighter pilot, is forced to change careers. Cmdr. Rabb chooses to join the Navy's Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. There he both defends and sometimes prosecutes Navy and Marine Corps defendants. He is sometimes assisted by fellow lawyer, Lt. Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie, and his other fellow JAG staff.
Many of Rabb's cases require him to both keep up his F-14 qualifications and travel the world, in order to bring justice to the cases he is trying.
Rabb must also deal with the fact that his father, also a former Navy pilot, never returned home after being held prisoner after he was shot down in North Vietnam. Rabb believing his father is still alive continues the search he has pursued to find his father, since his teens.