Dave Douglas (Tim Allen) is a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County who is prosecuting social studies teacher and activist Justin Forrester (Joshua Leonard) for firebombing the pharmaceutical corporation Grant and Strictland. Forrester denies this, but claims that Grant and Strictland have been engaging in illegal animal experimentation. This distances Douglas from his daughter Carly (Zena Grey), one of Forrester's students. As Dave is also a workaholic, his relationships with his wife, Rebecca (Kristin Davis), and son, Josh (Spencer Breslin), are strained.