In March 1979, the Gerhardt family is the most prominent organized crime syndicate in Fargo, North Dakota. Their hold on the territory is threatened by two near-simultaneous incidents. Patriarch Otto Gerhardt suffers a debilitating stroke, leaving the dynasty's leadership uncertain, with his sons Dodd, Bear, and Rye all vying for the position. Meanwhile, at a waffle house near Luverne, Minnesota, Rye, the youngest Gerhardt son, attempts to extort Judge Mundt into unfreezing his business partner's assets, only for the encounter to violently devolve. Rye kills the judge, along with a cook and a waitress. Afterward, distracted from a close encounter with a UFO, Rye is struck by a passing car which drives off with him stuck in the windshield. The driver, Peggy Blumquist, believes Rye is dead and keeps him in her garage without informing her husband, Ed, a local butcher's assistant. Ed discovers Rye still alive but manic, and he stabs Rye to death after Rye attacks him. Peggy convinces a traumatized Ed to keep the incident a secret, and they hide Rye's corpse in their meat freezer. Officer Lou Solverson, the father of Molly Solverson from season 1, investigates the waffle house shooting, noting the strangeness of the shooter apparently fleeing the scene in a vehicle after parking his own car outside the diner. He is joined by his father-in-law, Sheriff Hank Larsson. At home, Lou deals with his wife Betsy's progressing cancer, for which she recently has begun chemotherapy. Meanwhile, in light of Otto Gerhardt's stroke, the members of a Kansas City-based syndicate make plans to move on Fargo.