For once, the future looks bright for Adrian Monk. Everything seems to be going his way personally and professionally. He is investigating a string of accidental deaths and suicides and quickly determines they were actually murders. When the man Monk believes is the murderer is killed, Monk realises that he might be wrong. Monk's imprisoned arch nemesis, the morbidly obese criminal Dale the Whale, escapes during a prison transfer and all signs point to Captain Stottlemeyer as his accomplice. Monk will have to reboot his detective skills to clear the captain's name.