The detectives investigate a murder at a grocery store that is also connected to the death of a young man with the tattoo "Tanglewood" on his back. A third case involves a woman who was killed in a hit-and-run auto accident.

The body of a young contortionist is found folded into a box on Coney Island, leading Mac and Stella to the circus where they find themselves embroiled in a real-life Romeo and Juliet story between the dead contortionist, Lukas, and a trapeze artist, Anasuya. Danny and Flack find a woman's body in a laundry chute and learn that she was actually the former sorority sister of the woman who lived in that building, and turn their suspicion to the abusive husband the woman was hiding from.