Monk is smitten with an attractive former dancer and when she's accused of murder, he agrees to help her, even though all the evidence points to her, and continues searching... even after she confesses to the crime.
Monk's hundredth case, involving a serial killer, is covered by a TV news magazine, but while watching it he realizes that a second unknown killer was responsible for one of the murders.
Monk's hypnotic regression to his childhood begins to affect the case on which he's consulting - an actress who's disappeared, and the holes in her story when she's found after a deadly escape.
Monk's Christmas spirit, or lack thereof, is challenged when he takes a case from three homeless men who believe their friend was murdered, and Leland's epiphany sends him on a mission.
When Monk's half-brother Jack shows up at his door, he's less than thrilled, especially after learning that Jack has just escaped from prison and is accused of killing a very popular female employee while making his escape.
Facing both disbarment and the return of a husband she doesn't remember, Jane represents a young girl whose insurance company is refusing to pay for a potentially life-saving operation.
As Jane represents a man who wants to reclaim his son after going missing and presumed dead for nine years, Kim discovers that a new client has been writing a popular advice column under a male pseudonym.
With Jane and Tony on opposite sides of a fraud case filed by a bigamist's two wives, Kim wrestles with the idea of motherhood while fighting to reclaim a friend's baby from its surrogate mother.
As Tony's new job challenges their romantic relationship, Jane looks to keep Teri's cousin from being deported; Kim and Grayson represent a mother charged with assaulting her young daughter's abusive basketball coach.
When her mother is arrested for indecent exposure, Jane's defense exposes a well-kept family secret; Grayson's defense of a Ponzi scheme victim jeopardizes his job at the firm.
When Bobbi Dawkins asks her to help out a family friend who's been charged with theft, Jane learns that the woman is question is really her half-sister.
As Jane agrees to be the lawyer for an infamously difficult fashion designer, Kim and Grayson argue on behalf of a client whose sex change has jeopardized her chances at being considered her late spouse's legal heir.
As Grayson represents a couple who claims they were misled into buying a haunted house, Jane and Kim face an uphill battle when a 34-year-old client wants to sue for age discrimination.
Jane and Grayson defend a client whose grief over his wife's tragic death has led him to dress like a clown; Kim helps Parker defend a reality TV show producer being sued by a contestant who was humiliated on the air.
Jane's defense of a high school girl being bullied on the Internet makes her a target, too; Parker's long-absent law partner and former girlfriend returns seeking help in voiding a prenuptial agreement.
As Jane argues to allow a terminally ill college professor to be cryogenically frozen before she's actually dead, Parker orders Kim to team up on a land use case with his long-absent partner.
Monk dips his toe into male bonding when he attends the playoffs with Leland, but a murder distracts them from the game and its solution may be the only way to ensure the championship.
