Max Morrow

When former San Francisco Police Commissioner Harry Ashcombe puts out a call to help locate his "missing" wife, Monk and Sharona volunteer their assistance. But no sooner than they are on the case when the body of Mrs. Ashcombe is discovered by the notorious quack psychic Dolly Flint, who claims she was led to the body in a psychic trance. After attending the late Mrs. Ashcombe's memorial service, Monk begins to suspect that her death was more than just an accident.

San Francisco judge Catherine Lavinio places a frantic call to 911: there's an intruder in the house trying to kill her! As the 911 operators rush to dispatch a unit to the scene, the call is cut off, and Judge Lavinio is later found dead. The cops' prime suspect is 800-pound tycoon Dale J. Biederbeck III (Adam Arkin), a.k.a. "Dale The Whale." But Monk wonders how that can be possible - Biederbeck hasn't left his bed in eleven years, and can't even fit through his bedroom door!

Hotheaded police detective Adam Kirk agrees to meet a mysterious informant named John Gitomer on a moving Ferris wheel high above a local carnival. Moments after the ride begins to move, however, Gitomer starts screaming in agony. The Ferris wheel operator brings the ride to a halt, Detective Kirk leaps out, and he turns to find Gitomer with a knife in his heart. Now the informant is dead - and no one but Kirk could have done it. Captain Stottlemeyer, Kirk's former partner, is determined to clear Kirk's name. But given the overwhelming evidence against Kirk, doing so may prove difficult. Fearing the worst, Stottlemeyer has no choice but to bring in Monk.

A confused Monk is found trespassing in the home of his late wife, Trudy, and is sent to the Medford Psychiatric Institute for observation. Monk meets the hospital's brilliant director, Dr. Morris Lancaster, as well as fellow patients John Wurster (Kevin Nealon) - an overly empathic, Zelig-type ("I'm a detective too!") - and Manny, a man in his thirties who still believes in Santa Claus. Wurster tells Monk about a murder that took place at Medford four years earlier and Monk soon finds himself on the case.

Sharona drags a reluctant Monk to a vacation resort down the California coast. His sojourn is quickly interrupted when Sharona’s son, Benjy, witnesses the murder of a woman in one of the rooms through a sightseeing telescope. The hotel’s gung-ho security chief quickly puts the hotel on lockdown. Benjy’s murder sighting soon appears to be a false alarm, but Monk still believes in his young witness.