Matt Phelps sends his two kids to bed, and out of the blue, there is a drive-by shooting and his daughter Aimee is shot and killed in her bed. Grissom, Warrick and Capt. Brass investigate the case and Grissom learns that Matt Phelps is Warrick's mentor and friend. Warrick's investigation is conducted based on his emotions instead of on the evidences with serious consequences for Matt and a suspect. Meanwhile, Nick and Sam Vega investigate the mysterious death of a boss of a four-men Internet service company in the air-conditioned servers' room. They find many secrets in the team but no suspect and no murder weapon. Until Nick observes the duct of the air-conditioning.

When a new murder leads to a connection with an infamous serial killer, Grissom secretly joins the class of well-known criminal pathologist Dr. Raymond Langston to gain access to the killer and get a crack in the case.