The Good Wife — Season 1

Is a drama starring Emmy Award winner Julianna Margulies as a wife and mother who boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail. Pushing aside the betrayal and crushing public humiliation caused by her husband Peter, Alicia Florrick starts over by pursuing her original career as a defense attorney. As a junior associate at a prestigious Chicago law firm, she joins her longtime friend, former law school classmate and firm partner Will Gardner, who is interested to see how Alicia will perform after 13 years out of the courtroom. Alicia is grateful the firm's top litigator, Diane Lockhart, offers to mentor her but discovers the offer has conditions and realizes she has to succeed on her own merit. Alicia's main competition among the firm's 20-something new recruits is Cary, a recent Harvard grad who is affable on the surface, but competitive to the core. Fortunately, Alicia finds an ally in Kalinda, the firm's tough in-house investigator. Gaining confidence every day, Alicia transforms herself from embarrassed politician's scorned wife to resilient career woman, especially for the sake of providing a stable home for her children, 14-year-old Zach and 13-year-old Grace. For the first time in years, Alicia trades in her identity as the "good wife" and takes charge of her own destiny.

Alicia represents a stripper who claims she was raped at the bachelor party of a prominent businessman after the States' Attorney refuses to pursue criminal charges.

When the teenage son of a former friend hires her to defend him in a murder case, Alicia makes a difficult journey back to her old life.

As her husband's legal team continues to mount the case for his appeal, Alicia discovers evidence of possible jury tampering in her firm's class action law suit against a major pharmaceutical company.

Alicia and Will have only 72 hours to find the smoking gun that proves the train company, and not the three engineers, is responsible for the crash, thus securing the widows their pensions the company is holding back. Meanwhile, Jackie and Alicia clash over taking the children to visit their father in prison.

As Alicia works with Will on the appeal of a death row inmate, she agrees to a conjugal visit with Peter in order to get information from him since her client was convicted under Peter's regime as state's attorney.

While representing the daughter of one of the partner's at the law firm, Alicia finds herself attracted to her co-counsel and his unorthodox approach to defending their client.

As Alicia prepares to defend a scientist accused of arson, she is caught off guard when Peter's attorney asks her to testify on Peter's behalf sooner than she expected.

Alicia deals with tricky office politics when she's asked to represent the firm's senior partner after he's arrested. Meanwhile, Peter's evidentiary hearing hits the skids, leading Alicia to suspect that he may, in fact, actually be guilty of corruption.

When a judge overturns a simple plea deal that Alicia arranged, she looks into his motivation, and Diane is made an offer she can't refuse.

Alicia gleans a bit more info into Peter's fall from grace when she represents Glenn Childs' wife, Marie Browning, in their divorce. Meanwhile, Will gets cozy with his opposing counsel, Emily, during a wrongful death suit against caustic TV commentator Duke Rosco.

When a star high school quarterback dies from an overdose of painkillers, Alicia represents the doctor who prescribed the medication. At home, Alicia and the kids deal with some bad news and she gives Peter information that makes his blood boil.

Tensions are high as Peter's appeal trial begins and Alicia defends a wealthy client in civil court whose innocence she doubts, even after he's found not guilty in criminal court of murdering his wife. Meanwhile, Diane decides to take precautions when a felon she successfully prosecuted is about to be released from prison.

As Alicia defends a husband accused of murdering the babysitter, she and her family prepare for the outcome of Peter's appeal and his possible homecoming.

While Peter gets acclimated to life at home and works on a comeback strategy with his political team, including Eli Gold, Alicia and Diane wrestle with spousal privilege laws in a murder case that hinges on their ability to get a wife to testify against her husband.

As Peter strategizes on how to handle his retrial and the next steps in his public rehabilitation, Alicia and Will defend an attorney arrested for murder.

In an emergency courtroom set up in a hospital, Alicia and Will battle Patti Nyholm and an insurance company that refuses to pay for life-saving in-utero surgery. Meanwhile, Alicia gives Peter a proper welcome home.

Alicia and Will defend a college student accused of killing her sorority sister while under the influence of a sleep aid. At the same time, they also deal with their growing sexual tension and Diane and Kurt McVeigh continue their flirtation.

When Alicia goes head-to-head in the courtroom with former boss Jonas Stern, she debates whether or not use personal information to her advantage. Meanwhile, Peter uses religion to work on his appeal.

The police are quickly at the door when Peter's electronic monitor sounds after he chases Alicia out of the apartment. As a result, Grace and Zach scramble to figure out a way to keep him from being arrested.

The winner is announced in the competition between Alicia and Cary.

Eli Gold works on getting Peter's charges dropped, and Alicia defends Colin Sweeney,, a client and accused wife killer, who claims self defense after she finds him handcuffed to a dead woman.

At Eli Gold's urging, Alicia must decide if she'll stand by her man during Peter's new political campaign, or if she'll pursue a relationship with Will instead.