V opuštěné restauraci je objeveno tělo mladého muže. Zprvu se zdá, že ke smrti došlo v důsledku předávkování léky, Abby však dochází k závěru, že šlo o vraždu, neboť muži pozřel jed z oleandrovníku. Jednou z mála stop, kterou tým má, je laminátová kartička, již měl dotyčný u sebe. Důkladná analýza odhalí i tajný vzkaz napsaný krví. To vede vyšetřovatele k závěru, že mají co do činění se sériovým vrahem. Avšak Abby přichází s dalšími šokujícími zjištěními – krev na kartě patří jiné oběti vraždy – prostitutce z VIP klubu, navíc byla v podpatku mužovy boty nalezena další dávka smrtící látky.

A couple sneak into an abandoned, dilapidated restaurant where the man intends to propose marriage, recreating their original date 10 years ago. They banter about how long they have been friends and how much time has been wasted before his proposal. He kneels to propose and stumbles over the words. She tries to encourage him, thinking he has cold feet over asking will you marry me? but we soon realize that it's because his eyes have strayed past the woman to a maggot infested corpse. She sees it too. She screams.

In the basement of the NCIS building, Ziva is running a training session for the other agents on knife throwing. She demonstrates with a perfect shot on the paper target. DiNozzo and McGee are skeptical as to whether Gibbs approves of knives. Tony then has a go and is surprisingly good. He attributes it to years of summer camp. McGee is useless. Tony asks him if he went to Math camp. McGee responds with 'Chess."

Agent Lee has a go and almost kills Gibbs when she throws the knife behind her as he arrives to announce the roll out to the murder of a sailor.

At the crime scene, Ducky estimates 4 or 5 days dead. Gibbs finds a pink ticket on the body. McGee is ordered to collect the maggots and offers 100 bucks to Ziva to do it for him.

Back at the office, they identify the dead sailor as Petty Officer Davidson, last seen in a bar in Georgetown, who left with a girl before closing time. McGee has disappeared from the office. Gibbs sends Ziva to find him so she goes into the men's room, shocking McGee as he obsessively washes his hands after handling the maggots. Ziva offers to help McGee get over his maggoty fears and, when McGee refuses her help, asks why. McGee responds that, much like a men's room, it is personal. In autopsy, Ducky and Palmer discuss cause of death with Gibbs. The young man was a heavy drinker, has the liver of a much older man, plus ecstacy and a cocktail of other drugs in his system. Alcohol and drugs bender, seemingly self-inflicted death via drug abuse.

Abby's lab, where Abby is talking to her mass spectrometer as if it is a medieval knight:

"I hereby accept your challenge. We meet on the field at dawn. Weapons: caffeine-fueled intellect versus cold silica-based intelligence. Until then, I bid you a good day, Sir."

She turns from the machine to realize that she has been caught by Ziva and McGee. She explains that the machine spat out a chemical composition that she didn't recognize and she starts to run it through her computer. McGee asks what he can tell Gibbs about the pink card found on the victim, which he thinks is more urgent. Abby complains about being only one person to do all the tests and then advises McGee that he should tell Gibbs he loves him - it works for her. Gibbs enters, remarking "Not all the time", as he hands Abby a Caf-Pow. Abby reports that the sailor was given the poison that comes from the Oleander bush. Conclusion: murder.

Cut to scene in swanky bar, Jeanne on a phone talking intensely to ex-boyfriend accusing him of being a stalker. She is trying to keep Tony from overhearing her. Tony orders martinis for two and watches her across the bar. She finishes the call, returns and accepts martini but gulps it before he can offer a toast. Her stress is evident. She reads his eyes and face. Without prompting from Tony, she reads his mind, asserting that she can handle the problem and doesn't need him to do it. So he thinks of something else and asks her to read him mind now. She says they are not to skip dinner as she is hungry for food. He concedes he wanted to skip dinner and just go home to bed. He orders oysters as an appetiser aphrodisiac whilst they wait for their table. They sit. He compliments her. Quietly intense. She proffers a Valentines gift (the show aired near valentines day in USA). He admits he hasn't bought a gift. She is pleased that he is honest about it. He opens her gift: a platinum wrist tag for hospital patients, reminding him of the real one she put on him previously to keep him focused on her. The inscription on this new one reads Tony, love Jeanne. Mental Ward. He says "I've never had a gift this unique,nor a woman." As they kiss, her phone rings. The ex-boyfriend stalker. Tony wants to intervene and she resists. She wins. The oysters arrive. She decides they can skip dinner after all.

Next day in the office, Ziva demonstrates her Shakira dancing skills to an oblivious Tony, trying to call his attention to the fact that a composite sketch of the woman who left the bar with the dead sailor looks a lot like Shakira. Nothing distracts him from searching the Internet for a holiday trip. Then civilian police arrive with a junkie who saw something at the crime scene. One of the cops, John, seems the equivalent of DiNozzo. John notices and recognises Ziva's accent as Israeli and uses it to start to flirt with Ziva. Turns out that the junkie holds one of the deceased sailor's credit cards. Gibbs interrogates the witness who says he saw sailor in the alley outside a club. Sailor was already drugged. Junkie robbed him, leaving him to die. Gibbs is unimpressed.

Abby is in her lab, mystified by the laminated card that was recovered from the sailor's body. It is too clean and she suspects the murderer wanted the card to be found. She and McGee spot a spot that is puzzling. Is it a message from the murderer?

Office scene. Local cops explain that the owner of the private club where the death occurred is untouchable and unraidable. Smart owner protects his rich clients from police drug raids. You have to be rich to get in, not a mere sailor. Gibbs comments "or have something they want." Gibbs takes everyone to hear the report from Abby.
Abby and McGee explain that the pink laminated card left on the body is an intentional clue. She also demonstrates that the sailor's boot has a hollow heel with drugs in it. The spot on the card is a bloodstain, intentionally left to be found. Abby gives everyone coloured glasses so that they can see that the Luminol on the card reveals expect more written in blood. Tony declares it creepy. Gibbs: Ya think, DiNozzo?

Ducky in autopsy tells Gibbs that the sailor ingested the poison as a liquid, so bitter that booze would have to disguise it. The note found on the body said expect more and a few cases of the spiked booze could be used to wipe out a club. Ducky ponders could the poisoner be a woman, as they prefer poison? Gibbs comments, "That would explain why my last ex-wife spent so much time in the kitchen." As Ducky and Gibbs leave, Agent Lee and Palmer emerge from a tryst on the lower shelf of an autopsy table. Lee runs away. Palmer lays back and smiles. Office discussion with local cops about the club. They have no basis for a search warrant, as no one can place the sailor inside the club. Metro police insist on a warrant, doing it by the rulebook.

Gibbs storms into Director Shepard's office with Agent Lee trailing behind. Gibbs laments This legal person , meaning Agent Lee, not getting him a warrant. Gibbs rants about knuckling under to the Metro cops but Lee stands her ground that a witness is needed to allow a warrant and a warrant is needed to go into the club. Gibbs is disgusted. He asks the director where she found Agent Lee. The director replies, "Harvard Law." He leaves. Door slams again. Jenny reassures Lee, but Lee says that Gibbs is right. Director: He usually is, that's what makes him so damn irritating.
Tony at the hospital visits Dr. Jeanne Benoit, who is opening an envelope with tickets to Bermuda. Delighted, she thanks him. What could be a more perfect Valentine? Dinozzo, ruefully and unhappily waving his own tickets says A weekend in the Bahamas? Jeanne realises the Bermuda tickets are from her ex, and tears them up. Tony challenges her as to how similar he must be to the ex since they bought nearly identical gifts for her. Tony gets quite mean in his tone and is clearly upset about the ex-boyfriend not giving up. She refutes the similarity and insists that she must handle the problem as it is hers. Dinozzo whispers Exactly wrong. This is our problem, Jeanne and hands her the tickets and leaves.

In the office, local cop says We need to talk, Gibbs and Gibbs halts, hesitates, taps his coffee, and then beckons him into the lift. Ziva and John observe them exit. John queries We should call the paramedics? Ziva answers, "No need.If they fight, it will be to the death." In the lift, the local cop tells Gibbs that he used to be just like him. He is told You were never like me. So local cop says he used to be all about getting the bad guys, no matter what. Let the lawyers sort out the paperwork. Then hetells of a bust gone wrong where the bad guy walked because the cops lacked a warrant and thus bad guy was free to rape and kill a child. Cop declares he is not making that mistake again. Gibbs queries, in an intense whisper, whether the mistake was, "not getting a warrant? Or not killing the bastard?" Our impression, and the cop's, is that the cop really is nothing like as tough as Gibbs.

DiNozzo arrives in office, noting that, with the boss using the lift as an office again, he had to use the stairs. He shows what he found: a Marine's description of the sailor's last date, who in turn was identified by the parking attendants. He has a good sketch which allowed him to get a name. She is a professional escort. Gibbs is impressed. But they can't find her immediately. Gibbs announces a stakeout to find her entering or leaving the club where she plies her trade.

Tony and John, the friendly cop, are in the surveillance van, settling in for stakeout. They discuss their girlie magazines. Tony reveals I shouldn't be looking at it at all, I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea of a monogamous relationship. John That takes serious retraining. Tony Tell me about it. John awwgh, you're not in love are you? Tony Could be. John Could be, my friend, isn't love. They trade stories. John describes getting engaged and screwing it up by sleeping with the fiancee's best friend. He clearly mourns the loss and Tony sympathises. But they both open the girlie magazines. John gives Tony a look. Tony replies Baby steps.

Abby's lab. Ziva is confused by the Valentines decor in Abs lab, with the implication that it seems closer to Halloween decor. Gibbs enters and asks for progress, handing over a Caf-Pow complete with decorated straw, featuring a furry, red heart that says I love you.Abby receives it with a smile and we ponder the friends and lovers title of this episode. She reports that the blood on the card is a woman's blood. Ziva assumes the woman is the killer but Abby reveals that she was murdered 2 months ago, on Christmas Eve.
Gibbs Abby Ziva and McGee in office to hear report on the dead girl from the local cop. Cop reads out toxicology analysis and Abby says it means an overdose on oleander poison. Gibbs sarcastically points out to local cop that it would have been useful information to have two days ago. The woman's file reveals a picture of one footprint in blood at the murder scene, which the local cop says was the killer's only mistake. They all look at the boot print. Gibbs declares, "It wasn't a mistake."

Jeanne on phone to Tony, who is in the van with John. Jeanne confesses that perhaps Tony was right and she hadn't truly split with her ex. She says that she has now told the ex about Tony. They tell each other I love you. The sotto voice discussion is overheard by John, who reads Tony's face and body language as cold feet after asking her to marry him. Tony says he didn't ask her. John you gonna? Tony I cant live a lie. John what does that mean?Tony I don't want to end up like you John confesses that all he has to do is not drink, for the mess would not have happened if John had been sober. He states that he has now quit drinking because of his lost love. The discussion of John's drinking distracts the viewer from Tony's obscure statement that he cannot live a lie, so he has not asked Jeanne to marry him. This must mean that Tony's romance with Jeanne is not as it appears. Given Jeanne's French name and Tony's undercover work for Director Shepard to find La Grenouille, the French arms dealer, and Tony's inner turmoil despite finding Jeanne so perfect, the viewer is entitled to suspect a much deeper subplot than a mere romance.

Meanwhile, in the office, Gibbs prints out a picture of the boot footprint and asks whether the team has ever read Mad Magazine. McGee says only until his mother burned his copies. Abby catches onto Gibbs' point. She sees that the print is like the back cover in the Mad magazine. Turn it into a three-fold concertina, and you get a different image emerge. This one reads Dead *****. The shoe print is a message from a serial killer. But, local cop queries, shouldn't that mean that the dead sailor is a *****?
In the surveillance van, the cops and Tony watch the rich and beautiful arrive at the club. The cops lament that they never managed to infiltrate the club, assuming a bent cop tipped them off. Gibbs arrives and says he has someone who can get into the club without a warrant. Its the famous novelist, Thom E. Gemcity. The cops ask who? Tony says Don't ask, John. I'd vomit explaining. McGee arrives in a limo with Abby, Ziva and Lee as his girls, dressed to the nines. As they walk towards the bouncers/doormen, Gibbs issues instructions to find the missing woman and get her outside. McGee asks how? Gibbs exasperatedly points out Well, she's a hooker Tim. Use your imagination. Agent Lee is having difficulty walking as her piece (gun) is hidden in such an uncomfortable place because her skirt is so short. McGee's fame gains them all entrance to the club as the doorman is a fan of McGee's novel, Deep Six, written as Thom E. Gemcity. But the cops in the surveillance van spot the woman they are after in the back alley. The club owner emerges to talk to the woman. The cops start to move. Cut to woman as she asks owner for money. He accuses her of letting in the sailor. They discuss how the sailor was trying to kill the woman, using poison. Owner says that killing the sailor saved the woman. They argue. She threatens to tell the cops everything if he doesn't give her money. He gets physical, pushing her around, and she retracts and says that she will not go to the cops. He disagrees, says that she will spill her guts the first time she is picked up for tricking. He snaps her neck. Cops and Tony arrive. Shootout. Owner dead. John, the cop, asks did we hit her? Tony says it looks like owner broke her neck. John collapses. He has been shot in the chest. He knows he is dying, despite Tony's encouraging words. Gibbs arrives. Checks the dead people for pulses. John dies. Tony, who had been trying to staunch the bleeding with his hands, takes a deep breath, stands, looks across at Gibbs, who eyes Tony's reaction, a pinched look on his face. No words needed. You can tell Gibbs is talking with his eyes, saying "I'm glad it wasn't you."

Abby's lab. Abby is full of self-recrimination for missing the clue on the sole of the boot. McGee notes that the story - serial killer of prostitutes forced to drink his own poison - would make a good plot for a book. Ziva laughs
.
In Jeanne's apartment, Jeanne is looking at email. Finds 3 from her ex-boyfriend. She steals a look at Tony, checking that he remains asleep on her couch. Tony sleeps in the pose of an exhausted child, on his side, hand tucked under his head, knees curled, bathed in the glow of soft lamplight. Jeanne opens the latest email. The message reads I get it now Jeanne. Wont bug you again. Goodbye love She opens the attached photo. It is a beautiful portrait of a happy Jeanne and John, the local cop. She does not react with mourning or shock, so we assume she remains unaware that Tony has been working with John and that John has been shot. She hits the delete command. It checks Are you sure you want to delete the file permanently? She clicks yes and the face of Tony's new friend, her ex-lover, disintegrates to a black screen.