A staged suicide harks the return of a serial killer. Catherine and Gil Grissom, while at court, finds the the residing judge looks exactly like this killer. Grissom investigates the judge's past and finds a startling answer.

When Joanne Crooks is assaulted without rape at home, Catherine, Grissom, Nick, Warrick and Capt. Brass assume the investigation. They find fingerprints on the windows and they learn that the criminal is escalating in his crimes. They fear that he soon will rape his victim since this was his first break in. Meanwhile, Sara learns that the paraplegic prosecutor Melissa Winters will be submitted to a surgery of high risk. Three years ago, Winters was shot on the neck in a home invasion where her husband as killed, but the murderer has not been found. Now the bullet has moved and she needs the surgery. Sara decides to reopen the cold case using the bullet withdrawn in the surgery to try to find the criminal.