As Christmas draws near, the zone commander, Haverill, starts to come down on Lt. Fancy about his work skills and Sipowicz later intervenes and threatens Haverill to lay off Fancy or he will reveal some incriminating evidence about him being a racist. Meanwhile, Kelly and Sipowicz investigate the kidnapping of a doctor's daughter. Janice must pass some more information to the mob about the station's moves and wonders how she will get out of this situation. Also, Martinez and Medavoy question a woman and her young son who claim to have been robbed by a man who picked them up while they were hitchhiking in North Carolina. But Martinez later discovers that the woman, Kathy, is not who she claims to be, which leads to a hostage situation, involving Donna, at the station. Sipowicz reluctantly plays Santa as the precinct's annual Christmas party, and Martinez receives his gift from Lt. Fancy when he is promoted to detective, while Medavoy panics when the station's pet cat eats the Christmas rabbit, and Kelly visits his Alzheimers-stricken mother who resides in a nursing home.

Simone and Sipowicz investigate the murder of a woman whose body was found naked in the trunk of a car in a junk yard which leads them to a pervert with a penchant for lookalike porn actresses. Meanwhile, Martinez and Medavoy investigate a man who was found dead with a severe blow to his head from a typewriter. Simone hires Henry to take care of a painting job in the tenement building, where Henry comes in complaining about a difficult tenant. The emotionally and physically scarred Gina returns to work (with a large vertical scar across her left face), and Russell is working through her issues with her family problems by meeting a counselor.