Monk and Natalie go to Berkeley for Monk's 25th college reunion, but are sidetracked when Stottlemeyer shows up asking for their help on the recent homicide of a retired clinic nurse.
Dr. Kroger questions his abilities after a patient becomes the prime suspect in a murder. He decides to retire but a distressed Monk is convinced someone else is responsible.
Upset when a hiring freeze at the police department is announced, Monk is pressured by Natalie to investigate the deaths of her parents' neighbors, but when Monk starts considering his undercover role as a viable alternate career something has to be done.
Monk and Natalie take on a very popular shock jock after his sister-in-law suspects that the jock is responsible for killing his wife. But the jockey has an airtight alibi.
A street musician is murdered six different ways and the killer is threatening to strike again, but Monk and his colleagues are forced to the sidelines by obnoxious FBI agents.
Monk goes to the emergency room with a persistent bloody nose due to a bump on the nose, which he becomes convinced is actually a cerebral hemorrhage, and discovers the doctor he sought out for second opinion, dead on his office floor.