When Oahu-based private investigator Thomas Magnum's childhood friend and Naval comrade, Dan Cook, turns up dead, Magnum is adamant that the official cause of death, a burst bag of smuggled cocaine, is bogus. He enlists the aid of Dan's sister, Alice, in taking on the Navy to uncover the true nature of the top-secret assignment Dan was working on before his death.

On original broadcast, episode aired as a pilot movie.