Tough when it's called for and charismatic when necessary, Mayor Tom Kane (Kelsey Grammer) is a career politician and a good one at that. As the mayor, he's no stranger to the glad-handing, backroom politics for which Chicago is famous--he knows the game and--runs it well. Several terms at the city's helm have made him the most powerful man in Illinois, but not without sacrifice: his cold but mutually understood relationship with his wife, Meredith, and his tenuous relationship with his estranged daughter, Emma, are casualties which Kane must endure. Kane's reign of power is threatened when he learns he has a debilitating disease he must hide in order to maintain control.