Danny and Stella find innovative ways to process a crime scene while Danny is trapped in a panic room with the victim, who was the only person with the security code. As a locksmith works to cut through the titanium doors, the CSIs rush to process the evidence before the victim decays further and Danny's oxygen runs out. Meanwhile, Mac, Dr. Hawkes and Lindsay investigate the murder of an exotic dancer found dead on a klieg light

When the wife of a former medical examiner is found murdered, a white powder found at the scene provides the CSIs with a major lead in tracking the killer when it is discovered that the powder is heroin made from human bodies.