Canadian mountie Benton Fraser left his home in the north to travel down to Chicago, searching for the man who killed his father. He paired up with Chicago detective Ray Vecchio, and together the two often took on the more unusual cases.

Initially produced by CBS in conjunction with CTV, CBS pulled out of the show in the first year, leaving CTV scrambling to finish off the show, which was cancelled at the end of the second season. A year later, CTV was able to obtain enough international funding to bring about a spin-off, also titled Due South. In the United States, the spin-off and the original series were treated as three seasons of one series.