Concerned about Stacie and the house they have reconstructed together, Laurel seeks her pension to be given to Stacie when the cancer wins. However the county officials, Freeholders, conspire to prevent Laurel from doing this. Hard-nosed detective and Laurel's work partner Dane Wells, and gay activist Steven Goldstein, unite in Laurel and Stacie's defense, rallying police officers and ordinary citizens to support their struggle for equality. Laurel's legal success is a foregone conclusion, but she's no gay-marriage activist. She wants justice for the woman she loves and in getting it she achieves a moral victory. the most impressive is She fights for the rights of her domestic partner to receive her police pension before she dies of lung cancer.