The show itself is supposed to be a sequel to the 1967 film, set several years in the future. In the premiere episode, Philadelphia homicide detective and criminal profiler Virgil Tibbs has returned to his fictional home town of Sparta, Mississippi, for his mother's funeral. By virtue of his relationship with Bill Gillespie, the white police chief, fostered during a previous murder investigation in which he assisted, Tibbs is persuaded by the mayor to remain in Sparta as Chief of Detectives. Mayor Findlay himself has an ulterior motive for hiring Tibbs: he wants to have some kind of record on civil rights in order to run for Congress, and hiring Tibbs to integrate the all-white Sparta police department would help to overcome the local squad's reputation of being racist and underskilled — and it also benefits him. Although the team suffers friction over Tibbs' dissatisfaction with the department's limited resources and racial attitudes, and Gillespie is annoyed at the detective's condescending suspicions about his home town, the two men prove highly effective in enforcing the law.