Chief of Police Bill Gillespie (Carol O'Connor) has long directed the forces of law enforcement of the small cotton town when Virgil Tibbs (Harold Rollins) returns to Sparta MI for his mother's funeral. Mayor Findley (Dennis Lipscomb) sensing the opportunity to influence black voters in this quest for higher elective office asks Tibbs to remain in Sparta as Chief of Detectives under Gillespie. When a local co-ed is brutally murdered Gillespie who resents Tibbs being thrust upon him by the Mayor must work with the Tibbs to solve the crime. Tibbs suspecting the truth of the murder is soon the victim of an attempt on his life. Gillespie and Tibbs now join forces in earnest and ultimately discover a tangled web of guilt and deception.

Police Chief Bill Gillespie and Chief of Detectives Virgil Tibbs are at odds when Tibbs suspects that Gillespie's friend Sonny Mims killed his wife because of his involvement with Pauline the dead woman's cousin. Gillespie believes that the killing was the result of a drunken random shooter while Bubba Skinner has a more personal interest in the case since he has been dating Pauline.

Emotions run high when Ty Hayes (Randy Brooks) a black businessman comes to Sparta to buy the town's newspaper and it is suspected that he is romancing the paper's married white owner Evie Summers (Nana Visitor). Bubba's (Alan Autry) redneck cousin Mace Trapnell (Brad Leland) is incensed at the situation and vows to kill Hayes if he sees him with Evie again.

Two missing youths a sample of pure cocaine and Virgil's reluctance to forget his grudge against a high school classmate somehow seem tied together.

Virgil narrowly escapes death at the hands of Richie Epson's henchmen but Gillespie still does not have enough evidence to prove the former hometown boy is a major drug supplier.