After the events of the eighth season finale, during which Kristin went into labor with her baby daughter and Mandy was pregnant with her first child, the series jumps ahead into the near future, when Mike and his wife, Vanessa, will contemplate their own future, including Mike's imminent retirement from his lifelong job at Outdoor Man, and who could be his successor.

"Tim Allen returns ... as Mike Baxter in Last Man Standing, a show about everything that families in America are dealing with today - all filtered through the blunt 'man's man' comedy of an iconic American character ..."--Cover.

Mike Baxter is the straight-talking champion of common sense in a politically correct world. Mike will need that common sense to help guide his family through the many changes in store this year at home and at work. Vanessa, who last season traded a successful corporate career for a job as a public school teacher, now finds her rewarding new position in peril, as a teachers strike looms in Denver. The home front presents its own challenges.