The detectives are called to investigate the rape and murder of young woman, but have trouble identifying her body because her face, fingertips, and teeth are removed. Eventually, the use her tattoos to track down her fiance, Daniel. Daniel admits that he met her on a Russian bride website and that she was kidnapped after their engagement party. He paid the ransom they demanded, but now believes she's dead.

Upon further investigation, the detectives and the fiance discover the entire situation is an elaborate scam by a Russian mobster named Liev. He uses the same woman, Lena, to extort money out of men and then murders one of his prostitutes to make it look like Lena has killed.

SVU sets up an undercover operation to trap Lena and Liev with Cragen as the mark. They get Lena in custody and she claims that Liev is holding her baby hostage. They try to capture Liev, but he's killed by Rollins. Then, they find one of his safehouses where Lena's baby is supposedly held; however, there is no baby and Lena kills an officer so she can escape. The detectives find out that Lena was actually Liev's partner in crime.