Detectives Fontana and Green investigate the strangling of a promising Hispanic student at a private magnet school. The men soon learn the victim was selling test answers and writing term papers for more privileged students, including their prime suspect, Greg Loomis (Jaime McAdams), a trouble-prone senior who would kill just to graduate. After Loomis' arrest, Jack McCoy spurns any deal with his high-powered attorney Rebecca Shane (Kathleen Turner) but has to overcome her vigorous defense that her client himself was a victim of medication side effects.