Joan meets with Emil Kurtz, her mole in Morland's company. Emil gives her some information about Morland's Russia activities, which includes payoffs to law enforcement officials. He later informs her that he's out and refuses to dig any deeper.

She later joins Sherlock and the NYPD in investigating a double homicide, which at first blush looks like a carjacking gone wrong. Sherlock soon discovers that the scene was staged. Furthermore, the two victims were in the middle of faking the death of one of them when they were both offed by a third person.

Of the two victims, Butch and Talt, it looks like Talt was the more likely target. His business partner claims that they were pretty much bankrupt, but Talt's wife claims that the business parter was in a fight with him.

Sherlock discovers that a seemingly-worthless property is incredibly valuable due to the presence of old-growth ginseng. The partner admits trying to cheat Talt out of the money and hiring Butch to kill Talt, but his alibi for the time of the murder is solid.

They realize that Talt's wife killed him and Butch after she learned that Talt was going to leave her.

Detective Bell is called to another crime scene, and Emil Kurtz is one of the deceased victims.