Boston, Massachusetts, 1975: Charley Murphy is walking home down an alley when he witnesses a murder committed by Lucas Kerrigan, the leader of a Boston criminal enterprise. Bound morally to report what he has seen, he does so, but it comes at a very high price to the young Vietnam veteran. Kerrigan orders Murphy's brother savagely beaten, and then has his father murdered in attempts to intimidate Charley. But Charley testifies and Kerrigan is convicted. Even so, it is obvious to everyone, even Charley, that he must enter Witness Protection, then a fairly new program of the US Marshal Service in the war against crime. Rio Azul, Texas, 1981: Chance Donovan, a self-described "recovering Yankee" from Providence, Rhode Island, arrives in Rio Azul, Texas. Recently graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in business funded from an inheritance, he declares firmly that he wishes never to see another snowflake again. And so he builds a bar in this rural county, a simple beer joint called Chance's. A tragedy of happenstance sees the bar destroyed, but Chance is determined that here is where he will make his new life. He rebuilds, dubbing the reopened bar Second Chance's. But Donovan is determined to provide the locals more than just a place to have beer and barbecue. No, Donovan makes his business live up to its name, affording a variety of people new opportunities in their lives. Along the way he gains family not from blood but from affection, making his life a testimony to the inherent goodness of a man.