Tony a Ziva slouží jako ochranka ředitelky na jedné akci v hotelu, který se stal na přechodnou dobu jednou z nejlépe hlídaných budov v zemi. Zivě se v poslední chvíli podařilo ředitelku strhnout stranou, když z výšky padal muž, a skončil mrtvý na stole s pohoštěním.

Tajemník kongresmana Andy Nelson oznámil, že ho tento muž napadl v 6. patře a pak utekl. Vyvstává otázka, zda skočil sám, nebo mu někdo pomohl. Mrtvý je identifikován jako Brian Wright, bývalý příslušník námořnictva, válečný veterán oceněný dvěma vyznamenáními znamenajícími, že byl v bojích třikrát zraněn. Nyní žije jako bezdomovec, rodina se mu rozpadla.

Vyšetřování se zkomplikuje ve chvíli, kdy je v jednom z hotelových pokojů nalezena další mrtvola, tentokrát znásilněné nezletilé dívky...

Opening scene has Ziva and Tony dressed up on protection detail for Director Shepherd. We see some sort of Washington reception going on. Ziva is scanning the crowd and area while Tony is scanning the food table trying to grab something to eat. Jenny is mingling with the crowd as the retiring Deputy Sec Nav enters. Suddenly Ziva shouts and lunges for the Director, knocking her aside as a body hits one of hors dourves tables.

While inspecting the dead Marine’s possessions on site, Dr. "Ducky" Mallard discovers Wright was missing a shoe, had no wallet, but did have a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart with two Marine Stars (wounded three times in action), indicating that Wright was a recognized soldier if not a war hero. This steels Gibbs in defending Wright as a plot unfolds pointing in Wright's direction as an antagonist.

Back at NCIS headquarters, Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo reports Wright was not formally registered at the hotel. McGee obtains Wright’s medical records which indicate he was on medical leave for the past four months after serious shrapnel wounds to his head, but had not been seen by VA medical officials for the past three weeks. Gibbs’ impatience with the poor treatment of this fellow Marine intensifies when discovering Wright was homeless, living hand to mouth.

Gibbs reasons that perhaps Wright was staying at the hotel all along. Gibbs and McGee return to the hotel to find a maintenance man, Luis Ramirez (Francesco Quinn, actor Anthony Quinn’s son), who was a former Marine (the only one on staff at the hotel) who admitted to allowing Wright, in the Marine fashion "taking care of thier own," to stay in rooms undergoing repair. Ramirez shows Gibbs and McGee the room Wright was using, and they see a room service tray. While there, he receives a frantic call from the house staff that has discovered the dead body of a young Southeast Asian woman apparently strangled on the bed.

NCIS believes the two cases are connected and political heat enters from all sides. Physical evidence is recovered from the body, a black pubic hair and a swab of saliva from the dead girl’s face. Recovered from the scene was a master key that Ramirez had provided Wright (possessing Wright's fingerprints), providing the first connection of Wright with the murder of the girl.

Meanwhile, on the personal front, Tony is obviously burning the candle at both ends with work and his new amour, medical student Jeanne Benoit (Scottie Thompson). Ziva notes that Tony is looking "run over" and Tony corrects her saying "Run down, Ziva." As he is being questioned about his unusually haggard appearance by Ziva, Tony receives a phone call on a private cell phone rather than his usual one. It is his girlfriend arranging to see him that afternoon. Ziva was already suspicious that Tony had a love interest (”Sandblast”) and now her interest is piqued even more so. Tony continues to play coy in spite of his titillating conversation with Ziva in “Sandblast.”

McGee and Forensics Specialist Abby Sciuto analyze the recovered pubic hair for the presence of drugs that Wright would have had to be taking for his post-traumatic stress disorder. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry proves inconclusive, lacking the necessary sensitivity for detection and Abby tells Gibbs she needs a $100,000 infrared spectrophotometer (IR). Gibbs tells her to get one but Director Shepherd, coming to exert some pressure stated "Not in the budget." Not having one available to her, Abby attends a forensics trade show (it's kind of implausible that there is one so conveniently on, but of course we go along with this), meets a kindred spirit selling such instruments, finagles him into running her samples (though he seems pretty willing to do so) and determines that it does not contain the drugs expected from Wright but does indicate the presence of the preservatives used in the post 9/11 anthrax vaccine. Wright’s medical record indicates that Wright was never administered the vaccine and the recovered pubic hair could not be Wright’s. We see Abby and Marty hit it off, but when they arrange to meet and Marty emerges from behind the machine, we also see that he is vertically challenged.

While Ducky discovers unexplained bruising to the chest of the dead girl as well as where she had come from (Fujian province in China within the past several weeks), NCIS Special Agent Michelle Lee comes to the morgue for Ducky’s signature and disappears into a back room with Jimmy Palmer, leaving Ducky to find himself only with Gibbs, who had since come in. Ducky does suspect something is up with Palmer and tries to question him. Palmer gives the excuse of needing to be in the loo due to a "gastrointestinal challenge" and keeps Ducky talking while Agent Lee sneaks out. However Ducky is not satisfied, as he says "doors don't open and close by themselves". From the autopsy news Gibbs thinks that the girl was part of an imported sex trade ring and that Wright did not kill the girl but tried to administer CPR to her after she had been injured otherwise (accounting for the saliva on the dead girl’s cheek, identified as Wright’s and the chest bruises).

The room had been rented in congressional aide Nelson's name and paid for in cash. He is brought in for questioning after the pubic hair is identified as his since all people potentially coming in contact with anthrax were given vaccines, including many on the Hill as well as "those that handle the congressional mail" concludes Gibbs. Nelson gives up the fact that he killed the girl, whom he had acquired from slave trader Davey Chen (Ming Lo), with whom he had done business many times in the past. Michelle Lee goes undercover as a courtesan attempting to purchase her ostensible sister (the dead girl) back from Chen.

Michelle turns up with a briefcase full of cash; the case is bugged and she wears a hairgrip with a hidden camera. Chen is suspicious and finds the bug, but although his inner office is screened, the team can see that the bad guys are escaping into a passage down some stairs. Jenny recognises the lettering on the building where the passage comes out, and the team turn up to apprehend Chen and his henchmen, which includes agent Lee issuing Chen’s much larger bodyguard a serious butt whooping. (This is a trend in NCIS.) The trafficked Chinese girls are liberated from a truck outside. A satisfied Gibbs sees his late fellow Marine vindicated.