Harm and Mac investigate a "collateral damage" incident in Afghanistan when an attack on an Al Queda terroristhugs three innocent civilians. With the help of forensic pathologist Cmdr. Teresa Coulter, Mac and Harm try to find out if any of the remains can be identified as belonging to Al Queda leaders. Meanwhile, when Harm and Mac lose control of their Humvee, they are thrown into a minefield where they're forced to spend the night together figuring out how to extricate themselves from the trap.
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.