Mark's aunt Ruby is cheated out of her life savings by a pair of conmen, and the team set out to capture those responsible. Ed and Eve go under cover as a rich couple, but the investigation is threatened when Ed's cover is blown by a woman he once arrested.
Barbara Jones, the amnesiac victim with whom the Chief once fell in love (season one episode Barbara Who), calls Ironside in when her daughter is kidnapped. Not only is it a difficult case, but the Chief has an over eager Sheriff, a jealous husband and his own feelings to contend with, as he attempts to find the girl before it is too late.
As the team passes through a small town, Ed is kidnapped by an escaped convict. When it transpires that the real criminals are the local law officers, the pair go on the run together, and Ironside must get to Ed before he is killed by the Sheriff and his men.
Lured to a prison with a promise of information, the Chief and Mark are taken hostage by three convicts desperate to escape. Together they plot to undermine the escape attempt by turning the situation to their own advantage.
When Mark is shot, everybody assumes that the hitman was aiming for Ironside. It soon transpires, however, that Mark was the intended victim. With no apparent motive, and no clues as to who hired the assassin, can the team find the people responsible before they find out that Mark is still alive?
Ironside and Mark travel to France to handle the security for an American delegation at a conference with the Chinese, but somebody is determined to stop the talks from going ahead. Meanwhile, Mark falls in love with one of the Chinese delegates.
When a lowlife bookie is found severely beaten, five witnesses identify Ed as his attacker. Unable to provide an alibi, Ed finds himself having to prove his own innocence; and when the victim dies and Ed is arrested on a murder charge, the team have to find out who the real killer is.
Mark encounters a group of freedom fighters at his local college, who appear to have more attitude than sense. When it turns out that they also have a roomful of stolen automatic weapons, the Chief has to decide whether or not they represent a threat to the security of San Francisco.
Several girls connected to the same computer dating agency are attacked, and when it transpires that they all fit the same rough profile, Eve sets herself up as a potential next victim, in order to catch the man responsible.
Taking an important witness from Hawaii to San Francisco by plane, Ironside discovers that a fellow passenger is a hitman. He has to find out who is trying to kill his witness before the plane lands; but there may be more than one person trying to claim the reward for an open contract.
A Torah is stolen from a local Synagogue, presided over by an old friend of the Chief's. Ironside personally takes on the case, determined to find out if the theft was an act of vandalism, as the evidence would seem to point out, or if it is really the work of thieves looking for some quick money.
An old friend of the Chief's tries to commit suicide, after local gossip and the media both blame her for the murder of her husband. Ironside is determined to find out the truth about the death, even if it means proving that his friend really is guilty.
A member of Mark's basketball team becomes involved with a gang stealing to order. Mark is determined to get to the boy before the police do, to persuade him to give himself up, but the boy's employer has other ideas.
A fruit seller is threatened by a protection racket, who obtain false photographs of her lawyer son in an attempt to coerce her into letting them invest in her business on the docks. The racket has not reckoned on the tenacity of Dora and her son, however; or on her good friend Chief Ironside.
Driving home from a visit to his cousin, Mark picks up a hitch hiker, who turns out to be a thief looking for a scapegoat. The pair become friends, however, which causes problems when her accomplice turns up, anxious to carry out the original plan.
A young boxer from San Francisco's Samoan community is anxious to break free from the old traditions of his people, which he feels are holding him back. He finds the process a lot more distressing than he had imagined, however; and his own life, and those of the people he spars with, are put at risk.
Ed falls in love with an actress, accidentally caught up in a robbery case. Although the affair is mutual, Vivian Page is a pacifist, and unable to accept Ed's career in the force. Both have to decide what means the most to them, and in the end, separate; whilst the cameras pull back, and curtains fall across the screen, as though it had all been just a movie...!
When he arrives in Fiji to spend his holiday with an old friend, the Chief is suspicious about news that his friend has gone to visit him in San Francisco. After sending for Mark and Ed to join him, Ironside himself promptly disappears, leaving the boys to put the pieces together themselves.
Eve is present when an old friend of hers is kidnapped, and is taken along by the abductors. Anxious to get her back, the Chief investigates the husband of the intended victim, and discovers that all of the evidence points to his guilt. As always, however, the Chief is not prepared to go along with what seems obvious.
Ironside becomes trapped in his office on his own, when a man comes looking for revenge. With Mark at school and Ed dragged to the opera by Eve, the Chief has to improvise a series of defences, whilst his team gradually come to realise that something is very wrong.
An ex-thief on parole is suspected of a jewel robbery, but the Chief, who has supported him since his release, is sure that he is innocent. Of all those with the means to commit the crime however, it seems that only this man and his young cousin are likely suspects. The fate of an entire rehabilitation programme may hang on Ironside's ability to prove his friend innocent.
A thirteen year old boy is the only witness to his mother's murder, but finds it hard to co-operate with the Chief, knowing that it was Ironside who put his father in prison. Allowing Marty Jessup a temporary pass is the only way for the Chief to solve the murder and to lessen his conscience at the same time.
The team is assigned to watch over a Crown Prince on a one night stay in San Francisco. With Eve accompanying him on an unscheduled tour, and Ed following along behind, it seems that he is safe from harm; or is he?
A dog belonging to a rich friend of the Commissioner's goes missing, and Ironside is assigned to the case. Somewhat scornful of the task, he details Ed and Eve to investigate instead; but is soon lured back when, helped by Mark, they uncover a racket stealing dogs for ransom.
After killing Ed Brown's fiancée seven years previously, Tom Dayton, a sociopath with a hatred of female authority figures, is released on parole. Ed is certain that Dayton is still dangerous, but the authorities do not share his concerns.
