During a week-log heat wave, corpses are found, mostly accidentally. A.D.A. Jeffrey Sinclair decides to 'make an example' of a workaholic father who forgot his baby-boy in his scorching-hot car with fatal result, but the team finds the couple lost a previous baby and may have murdered this one. Mark Young is missing since his teen date's fatal lake sports accident. A fat man on a crazy diet was electrocuted at home.

Because Warrick naively assumed simple uniformed cop Hal Watson would have arranged a search warrant, the crucial weapon in the rape and murder trial on a neighbor against Michael Fife is dismissed as evidence in court. A.D.A. Jeffrey Sinclair can only get a 24 hours delay to present new evidence to build the case again. Nick brilliantly smooths emotional waywardness from Sarah and Warrick. New clues expected to reconstruct the case against Fife actually indicate he's probably innocent. An alternative culprit must be found, starting from Fife's car where the bloody knife was planted.

While giving his testimony in a retrial, Grissom sees fingerprints on a matchbox that he does not recall. The victim Max Larson was found dead I his hardware store hit by a wrench. He requests a recess to the DA and reopens the investigation of the case. He follows the protocol and assigns Catherine, Warrick and Nick to investigate the case again and why they have missed the fingerprint in their investigation. Ecklie asks Sofia to investigate Grissom's cases and begins a witch hunt in the laboratory. Meanwhile, Sara, Greg and Det. Louis Vartann investigate the case of a John Doe, who died after shooting his own leg. When they succeed to find the register of the gun, they find clue of another case.

When a woman dies on her staircase, the team uncovers marital infidelity and an even bigger secret during their investigation.

Catherine investigates the murder of a young mother who claimed God got her pregnant, while Grissom witnesses a very shady trial.

In a courtroom, Det. Sofia, Dr. Robbins and Nick go to the stand to testify about the murder of the popular high-school student Stacy Vollmer, who was found wrapped in a shower curtain and buried in a flower bed in her school. The prime suspect is Marlon West, and all the evidences point to him. When his twelve-year-old sister Hanna goes to the stand and confesses the crime, the judge gives seventy-two hours to the prosecution to check the evidences to proceed the trial without reasonable doubt. Who killed Stacy Vollmer?

A well-known Las Vegas humanitarian is killed for her involvement in a dog-fighting ring, and CSI searches for clues in the strip club murder that Warrick was framed for.