Barksdale's in jail, but the team is no better off. McNulty has been demoted to harbor patrol, Daniels is in the police archive dungeon, Prez is chafing in the suburbs and Greggs is stuck behind a desk. Meanwhile, on the docks of the Baltimore harbor, the rank and file scrounges for work and the union bosses take illegitimate measures to reinvigorate business. But the discovery of 13 dead bodies in a shipping container is about to blow the whole port inside out.

While the detail is on ice, a new case begins...