Detective Mac Taylor is a dedicated crime scene investigator who believes that everything is connected and everyone has a story. He and Detective Stella Bonasera lead a team of crack forensic experts through the gritty and kinetic world of New York City as they piece together clues and eliminate doubt to ultimately crack their cases. A modest home in a suburban Queens neighborhood is the unlikely site of a grisly crime scene: a married couple and their daughter are found brutally murdered. Missing from the scene is the couple's young son, and Mac Taylor and Danny Messer soon uncover signs of a possible kidnapping. Can they find him before it's too late?

In a heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, the body of a devoutly religious man is found ritually displayed on the floor of his synagogue. Stella Bonasera and Aiden Burn initially suspect a fringe fundamentalist group that has had run-ins with the victim's congregation, but the group is led by a charismatic and antagonistic man who does everything he can to stonewall the team's investigation.

Two very different crimes, with one thing in common: CSI investigators who won't stop until they uncover the truth.