After mounted officer Valasquez is shot down in the park, Mac goes looking for the bullet that killed the officer only to learn that it is lodged in the horse's spine and cannot be removed without being fatal to the horse. The investigation leads them to a local street vendor, but stalls when the D.A. asks Mac not to do anything to risk the horse until after the woman who donated it has a chance to say goodbye. Aiden investigates the body of a young man, Lenny Starks, who was found face-down, dead in the street. Aiden traces the young man to a local pizza parlor where she faces intimidation from the bookies who use it as a gambling front.

When the body of a young woman is discovered at a laundry facility, the bed sheets she is wrapped in lead Mac and Stella back to an upscale New York hotel that houses diplomats from around the world when the United Nations is in special session. Meanwhile, Danny and Aiden investigate the death of a homeless man found dressed as a human statue. By all accounts, the prank is deemed a misdemeanor, but Danny decides to delve further and his refusal to stop the investigation puts him at odds with Mac.

The team examines the murder of an avid Boston Red Sox fan found dead with a ruptured spleen following a tough loss against New York. Danny must put his baseball skills to the test to piece together the evidence as the CSIs try to find out how and why he was murdered. Meanwhile, after testifying in a murder trial, Mac is confronted by the defendant, Quinn Sullivan, who questions the validity of the evidence. Mac is torn between trusting science or his desire to help a man facing jail time who swears he's innocent. Also, when a truck kills a barely clad woman early one morning, the team investigates why she was running through the streets and from whom.

A young boy witnesses the death of a museum curator but doesn't want to tell anyone about it. Danny investigates the death of an urban golfer found dead on a construction site.

After a routine call leads two of the team into finding a bomb, they evacuate but a few are still in the building along with Mac and Flack when the bomb detonates. After the explosion the CSI's face a race against time to find the bomber and the possibility of losing one of their own. Mac must come to grips with having let a Marine die in Beirut in 1983.