Neal Caffrey has no alibi for the robbery from a Manhattan fashion house's safe of the world's most exotic pink diamond, which was replaced by a masked man resembling him with a synthetic one bearing his initials. Peter Burke has nothing to prevent Neal being jailed by a hostile agent from OPR, the FBI's internal affairs branch. Neal however escapes, helped only by Mozzie, 'hides' at the Burke home invited by Elisabeth and sets out to prove the only other logical suspect, Tulane, faked his alibi and was hired by a third party.

The arrest of a jewel thief puts Peter and Neal, who poses as fence-collector, on the trail of the laundering agent, adoption lawyer Donovan, who extorts adoptive parents with fake claims from biological mothers to pay off his gambling debts with a Russian mobster. Mozzie breaks into Sara's apartment and captures Kate's recording, soon recovered by Sara Ellis and her detectives searching Neal's apartment. After teaming up with the mob, Peter and Neal arrest Donovan. Sara promises, after finding out what happened to Kate, to help Neal with his investigation. The recording reveals that Kate called an unidentified person shortly before the jet exploded, so Neal and friends target whoever was on the other end of the phone.