Sherlock and Joan are sacked by the NYPD due to Sherlock's pending legal issues and heroin relapse, despite any good words put in by Captain Gregson and Detective Bell. In order to help get Joan at least back in NYPD's good graces, Sherlock begins to investigate the murder of a woman that was attributed to her husband after said husband shoots himself in front of Sherlock after denying his responsiblity for the death of his wife.

Sherlock finds similarities in the disappearance of another woman, also from Honduras, and suspect at first that it might be the doing of a serial killer, but further investigation unearths that both women were survivors of a massacre of a human smuggling operation by a powerful cartel in Mexico.

Furthermore, they learn that the coyote who tried to cheat the cartel also survived, and deduce that the women planned to kill him. Unfortunately for them, he turned the tables on them and killed them first. With the assistance of the New Jersey police, Sherlock sees the man arrested and extradited for crimes he committed back in Honduras.

When Sherlock arrives home after solving the case, he meets his father Morland on the roof of the brownstone. Their initial encounter is cold, and Morland declares that he is here in New York to clean up Sherlock's mess.