Detectives King and Paretsky are a pair of female homicide detectives (the only ones, in fact), stationed at an out- of-the-way station in the bad part of Chicago. The show primarily played off the 'buddy' aspect of the characters, as King was a college-educated black woman on the fast track, while Paretsky was a working-class white single mother. In addition the two also had to deal with the Neanderthal attitudes of the male officers in their station.