The murder of a mortician and the discovery of corpses at a crematorium lead the detectives to a family man claiming to have a consulting business but suspected of being a contract killer with a penchant for perfection. Goren attempts to prove this by setting up a scheme that puts his "fear of making a mistake" in jeopardy.

The detectives are called to investigate the adult daughter of a retired officer which takes them to a case of terrorism involving someone she knew that includes a shipment of explosives.

After the trophy wife of a recently released prison inmate is murdered, Goren plays on the man's paranoia to find a connection to another inmate with a hit list.

Goren and Eames enter the closed world of a thieving Irish Traveller clan when they investigate the death of a Ann Lawson, a probation officer who was run over three times after meeting a friend at the bar. They soon learn that Ann, a probation officer, had been involved with Malcolm Bryce, the father of Paul, one of her charges. It appears as though Ann is also very close with the thieving Irish Travellers they are investigating, determined to save a young girl from their style of life.

Goren reaches into his own experience working with a partner to solve the murder of a gamer who appears to be connected to a network of thieves using spyware to commit fraud. Eames gives birth.

When Phoebe Morton is murdered on the phone with a 911 operator, Goren and Eames take the case and soon realize Morton is one of five women murdered with a similar bent, the killer known as Body By Jake (B.B.J.). Their investigation leads them to Keith Durbin, a recently released parolee who seems to be perfect. Goren has his suspicions about Durbin, who doesn't seem right to him, and when they learn that there are similar killings going much further back, Goren and Eames soon focus their attention on a new suspect, and soon realize that even though he's not guilty, Durbin is the key.

Goren and Eames investigate the death of Eric Newsome, an urban explorer who was found in a water tower. During their investigation, they learn that Eric had been looking into the files of Dr. Everett Janns, an OB/GYN who had examined his sister Nikki's boyfriend Drew's mother years earlier when she had been carrying his sister Lisa. Lisa Ramsey was born with spina bifida, and Victoria Carson was suing her primary OB/GYN, Dr. Dominic McKenna, with a wrongful life suit, charging that he did not perform the necessary tests needed to establish whether or not her child had spina bifida, which would have influenced whether or not she had an abortion.

Captain Ross, Goren and Eames have their Thanksgiving plans interrupted when the deputy commissioner's daughter, a US soldier home from Iraq, goes missing. At the same time, Goren has difficulty coping with the failing health of his needy mother.

A woman who married a billionaire winds up dead under mysterious circumstances shortly after her son dies.

Nichols takes a very personal interest in a case that turns out to have many layers when an old friend is murdered, and somehow the reclusive book dealer's troubled daughter is also involved.