A Russian businessman is leaving a strip club when a car pulls up and two Ukrainian hitmen kill him, his bodyguard, and an innocent valet before speeding off. Their escape is short-lived, however, when they lose control of their vehicle and it crashes, killing both of them.

Sherlock figures out quickly that the vehicle was hacked and was being remotely controlled by another person, who crashed it intentionally. This person likely hired the Ukrainians to kill the Russian oligarch, who was known for his ruthless business practices.

They learn the author of the hack is a woman named Fiona, who works at a company called Pentillion. However, after meeting her, Sherlock realizes that it's far more likely someone stole her software to use for themselves. Fiona's boss, Balsam, points them to their corporate rival.

Sherlock and Joan go on a merry chase, but no one seems to benefit by Zolotov's death: not the company doing the Connecticut port deal, not the dockworkers union that was working out their own deal with him, not the American government that was in secret negotiations with him to help end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, not the arms dealer selling to the Russians and Ukrainians.

Finally, Sherlock discovers that it was Balsam himself, who benefitted from the U.S. embargo on Russian rockets and wanted to keep the conflict (and thus the embargo) going.

Meanwhile, Morland Holmes invites Joan to dinner and asks her to look into a blood bank for him. Finding this a little suspicious, Joan does a little investigation of her own and comes to a disturbing conclusion: someone attempted to kill Morland two years ago in Paris, and he might be afraid that something will happen again.