 Blanks retrieves DS Mira Barkley (Channing) from her dissatisfying work in another precinct to help with the Stoics; Barkley was his partner during the previous Stoics case.Blanks partners Barkley with rookie detective Jimmy Travers (Long) due to the latter's potential as an intuitive savant.Investigating a nuisance case in an apartment building, Barkley and Travers unwittingly allow the Stoics access to murder an otherwise protected tenant, a college professor of "advanced magical engineering and biology with an emphasis on power plant design."