** spoiler alert ** This story introduces us to Jesse Stone... a drinking, ex-LAPD homicide detective, who fell in love with Jennifer, who was more in love with being an actress - to the point of sleeping with a producer... they divorce, he gets fired... and Paradise police hire him to be chief...

Jesse is a good policeman, level headed, trying to get over Jennifer (but she sends mixed messages - she loves him, but... ) and he is trying to restrict himself to 2 drinks at night only...

Paradise is a small, white town, where many are part of the Freedom's Horsemen - a militia that gathers once a week to practice maneuvers... and under the leadership of Hasty Hathaway - the bank president, who (with Jo-Jo as his muscle & Lou Burke as his police cover) has been laundering money for a drug runner... they forced the previous police chief to retire to Wyoming, and then a few months later killed him in a truck blow up because he learned about the laundering and threatened to go to the FBI... they hired Jesse because with his drinking they thought he would be a good stooge...

and Jesse quietly, observantly, figures out what's going on... a repeated phrase, is he never got in trouble for not saying anything... but he acts as necessary... he has a liason with Abby, the town council, and is honest with her about himself & about Jenn...

He stops Jo-Jo & Hasty - but only after Hasty's lover and Lou Burke are killed...