Drama about what goe in one of New York City's police precinct houses on a given night.

While detectives Mickey Berk and Rocco Gibraltar are having dinner with their dates, Marcia Stillwell and Judy Grundy, they talk about their jobs at a New York City precinct. Early in the evening, Lieutenant Francis X. Pope brutishly interrogates several suspects--an accused child molester, a suspected homosexual, a married couple who run a "whipping club," a mugger named José, and a man who admittedly ax-murdered his wife. The intense investigations being conducted by Pope and an assistant district attorney are suspended, however, when two motorcyclists, Popcorn and Grahr, are dragged in for questioning and start a free-for-all by attacking the detectives. Soon thereafter, the mayor of the city arrives, ostensibly on a walking tour; but he actually has come because of complaints about the mistreatment of minorities. When José supplies the bruises on his face as evidence, Pope admits that his men do get "a little over-eager" at times, but he promises to take care of the matter. Once the mayor has left, Pope goes to a nearby restaurant for dinner with his wife, Mary. Expressing her unhappiness over Pope's being, in effect, "married to the police force," she asks for a divorce and states that she has been having an affair with detective Gibraltar. Now drunk, Pope spots Gibraltar and questions him privately about the affair. After Pope's obnoxious behavior has chased Marcia and Judy away, he also leaves. Although he soon returns with Lee, a prostitute he had questioned earlier, Mary gets rid of the woman and reconciles her problems with Pope. By this time, however, he is too inebriated to do anything more than prop himself up on the bar and trade tired quips with Berk and Gibraltar.