When Lupo and Bernard come upon the burning body of Cesar Ramirez (Noel Rodriguez), a sixteen-year-old charter school student from a bad neighborhood, they begin to question his young mentee Moses (Aaron Shaw), who was the last person to see him alive. After evidence leads the detectives to a shocking cell phone video of the crime being committed, they soon realize that the four people in the video may be in cahoots with an unexpected ally. The investigation leads the detectives to the high school principal, Martha Woodside (Debra Winger), who has all of the right answers. With a shady educator, tampered alibis and jealous schoolboys all coming into play, the detectives discover that their case may be more than elementary, and until new evidence comes to light, there is no one that ADAs Cutter and Rubirosa can put on trial.

Detectives Lupo and Bernard detain a man who is tried and found guilty of killing a gay man as a hate crime. Shortly after, one of Cutter's former law professors, Emily Ryan (Amy Madigan) steps in with The Innocence Collective, determined to prove his innocence and reverse the verdict. Cutter soon discovers that Emily's overeager student assistant, Lisa Klein (Anna Chlumsky), may have crossed the line to get a testimony in her client's favor. Before long, personal relationships are threatened as the integrity of the entire trial is called into question. As a defense on for her client, Emily Ryan uses the status of EADA Cutter's law license to say that her client, among others, deserve new trials; Cutter races to figure out a way to keep a mistrial from occurring and letting the defendant walk away from a brutal hate crime.