Faced with a string of nine brutal murders, all with different MOs and no apparent similarities among the victims, Captain Stottlemeyer calls in Monk to help him investigate. Suspicion falls at first on Henry Smalls, an insurance agent whose calendars appear in three of the victims' photographs. But as Monk, accompanied by Sharona and her new boyfriend, Deputy Mayor Kenny Shale, waits in the dark for Smalls to return home, he helplessly witnesses a fatal stabbing in which the suspect becomes the victim. Rushing after the murderer, who is wearing a ski mask, Monk tries futilely to subdue him, but all he's able to discover is that the murderer bites his fingernails. As the number of victims rises to eleven, the diversity of the victims, combined with the fact that they all live in Marin County, suddenly causes both Monk and Stottlemeyer to realize that they're all members of a jury. The ensuing investigation leads them to a six-year-old personal injury case, won by the plaintiff, who is

When Monk's paperboy is murdered on his doorstep by a guy looking to steal his newspapers, Monk turns to the pages of the newspaper for clues to solve the baffling crime.

Unable to pay for Monk's services as a private detective, middle-aged law student Julie Parlo offers him a trade--she'll help Monk become reinstated as a policeman with the SFPD if he'll help her find her missing grandmother. The only clue to the identity of the kidnappers is a roughly drawn lightning bolt on a note left at the grandmother's house, leading Stottlemeyer and Disher to suspect the former leader of an anti-Vietnam War group from the Seventies. But when the captain, anticipating Monk's reinstatement, invites Monk to help him with interrogation, Monk accidentally discovers that the suspect's tattoo doesn't match the symbol on the note--it has three humps instead of two. Meanwhile, the kidnappers order Julie to provide turkey dinners to the homeless in exchange for the return of the grandmother. Julie complies and her grandmother is returned safely, leading Stottlemeyer to put the case ""on the back burner."" True to her promise, Julie informs Monk of a loophole that will all

Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher are making a routine arrest when a mysterious man in a car drives up and shoots at them, wounding Stottlemeyer. When Monk and Disher try to apprehend their prime suspect, Monk’s obsessive-compulsive disorder allows the suspect to escape. Consumed with guilt, Monk goes to Dr. Kroger who gives him a drug to alleviate his obsessive-compulsiveness but impairs his sleuthing ability.