A man in a hotel puts a body in his luggage and wheels it out into the hallway. A maid asks him if he has found his friend, he says yes. The man then dumps the body in the trash and checks out of the lobby as Anthony DiNozzo. The next day, we see Ziva and McGee smirking at Tony, who is hung over from his night out with a group of Japanese police counterparts, having had too many sake bombs. Gibbs comes in at that moment and questions Tony if he has an alibi for the previous night. Tony affirms that he was with the Japanese bunch and Gibbs says that he is glad of it.

The team arrives at the hotel and begins investigating the dumped body, and is informed that someone had signed out of the hotel under Tony's name. The hotel desk clerk said that the man had looked similar to Tony, but was more fit, and the manager then hands over the hotel surveillance tapes and a key card, then asks that this be done as quickly as possible. The victim, a mailman named Justin Grady, was strangled with a wire and stabbed with a three inch blade. The maid and another guest had described seeing a man in the hallway that matched Tony's description. As Tony steps out of the hotel to take a breather, a man approaches Tony and asks if Tony remembers him.

Tony brings the man into the building and tells Gibbs that he knows the man, Renny. Tony had led an investigation on Renny for a charge of embezzlement when Gibbs was 'retired', and the judge gave Renny three years for his crime. Justin Grady had testified against Renny. In interrogation, Renny tells Gibbs that he only wants to speak with Tony, and that he is innocent of the embezzlement charge. Although Renny said that he had wanted Justin to die, he did not murder Justin; he only wanted to meet with Justin at the hotel and only could do so by posing as Tony. Renny left his room to have dinner but came back to find Justin dead in his room. Renny hands Tony a USB drive in which he says contains evidence that will prove his innocence. Later, Gibbs tells Tony that since it it his case, Tony should lead it. Rule 38: your case, your lead.

Taking charge, Tony orders McGee to look into the victim's background, Ziva to examine the hotel surveillance tapes, and Gibbs to look into the USB drive. Everyone ask Gibbs if he is going back to Mexico. Gibb's phone rings and he tosses it to Tony; Abby has examined the evidence found in the hotel room. In her lab, Abby talks to Tony as if he was Gibbs, telling him that the killer had washed his hands after Justin was killed, leaving a partial print on the soap dispenser. Back in the squadroom when McGee asks Ziva how she feels about Tony as the boss, Ziva asserts that Tony is a competent leader. When Tony arrives, McGee says there is nothing unusual in Justin's bank statements, but has made a request to a judge to unlock the sealed portion of the record to be able to further look into his record. Gibbs had looked into the USB drive and says it looks like Renny was innocent of the charges against him, since Renny was in Iraq when the embezzlement took place. It seems Renny had found evidence that the documents were forged.

Tony has the team gather together campfire style. Gibbs Tony says that he doesn't think Renny committed embezzlement. Tony says that he still thinks Renny killed Justin. Ducky calls the office and asks Gibbs to come down. Tony tells him that he will come down in place of Gibbs. Tony orders Ziva to look into the transcripts of Renny's case. He tells McGee to look into the interview files. Tony tells Gibbs that they had a good campfire. Ducky tells Tony that Justin was found with Valley Fever. He says that Justin had a fever when he died, which changes the time of death. Tony realizes that Justin died when Renny was having dinner.

Later, after interrogating him, Gibbs releases Renny. Tony tells Renny that he is sorry for putting him in prison. Tony then tells him that he will write him a letter for his appeal. Tony asks Renny who he thinks set him up. Renny says that he can't believe that he expects him to help. Tony gets a call from McGee and says that there is a man in the conference room related to the case. An officer named Mitch tells Tony that he was right when he told him that someone framed Renny. Mitch asked how Ziva is. Mitch says that he is a friend of Ziva on her Facebook page. Renny says that he has seen Ziva's knife collection. Mitch said that it looks like Renny found out how the real embezzler took the money. Tony goes to Abby's lab and finds that she has digitized the partial print from the hotel room. Abby says that she can link it to a person only if they have a list of suspects. Tony tells Abby that he sent her a list of fingerprints of Renny's former co-workers via email. Abby loads the file and gets a match. Tony meets with the team and tells them that they have a suspect. They go to the home of a man named Carl Davis.

When they arrive at the house, Tony tells Gibbs that he would like to take over the driving. They knock on Davis' door and Carl's wife answers the door and tells them that Davis is out of town. They enter the house and find Davis tied up to the bed with a badly bruised face, gagged and next to a small blood stain on the pillow. Carl's wife tries to explain that she was playing with her husband. The team see that the woman was about to burn Carl alive with lighter fluid. McGee finds an envelope filled with photos of Carl having an affair with another woman. Carl is surprised when Gibbs tells him that Justin was found killed. Davis says that he was In Hawaii with another woman when Justin was killed.

Abby apologizes to Tony for leading the team to Carl. She says that she found trace elements of smoke on the soap dispenser found with Carl's fingerprint. Abby goes on to say that the room in the hotel is a non-smoking room. She then shows him a picture and tells him that the soap dispenser was stolen from Carl's home and planted in the hotel room.

McGee announces that there is evidence of a third embezzler in Renny's case. Tony tells McGee to try to track the third embezzler. Tony then goes off and secretly meets with Palmer. Tony tells Palmer that they can't find the third embezzler. He then says that it is common for embezzlers to sit on the money for years and that Renny might know the case better than anyone. Palmer tells Tony that he should ask Renny for his help. Tony goes to Renny's house and finds smoke coming from under the door. He breaks in and hears the smoke alarm. The living room appears like there was a struggle. He calls out asking if there is anyone in the house, but no one answers. Later, the team arrives at the scene to investigate. They see that there was prime rib burning in Renny's oven. Ziva finds a knife with blood on it. Tony suspects that someone kidnapped Renny and he might already be dead.

Back at the office, Tony tells the team to find Renny. Gibbs begrudgingly obliges. sees that Tony is getting frustrated and pulls him aside. Tony tells Gibbs that he feels bad for putting an innocent man in jail. Gibbs tells him that he is doing a great job leading the team. Gibbs tells him to get his head on straight and trust his gut. Tony says that he rather trust Gibbs's gut. Gibbs tells him to hand over his phone if he wants to give up. Abby arrives and asks Gibbs and Tony if she is interrupting anything. Gibbs glares at Tony then Tony asks her what she has for him. Abby says that the blood found on the knife does not match Renny's DNA. Abby says that the knife was used to kill Justin and then says that Mitch left DNA evidence on the weapon. Tony brings Mitch into the office and tells him that he thinks that he tried to get rid of Justin and Carl because they were his accomplices in the embezzlement. Mitch says that Carl attacked him when he arrived at the hotel. Mitch says that he did leave the knife at the hotel. Tony leaves the interrogation room and McGee tells him that Justin was just indicted for mail fraud. Ziva arrives and tells the team that the photos of Carl having an affair were fake. They figure that Renny set up the embezzlers to turn on each other.

Tony finds Renny at the airport carrying a bag. Tony tells him that he thinks he has the money that the men embezzled. Renny opens his bag and shows him a bundle of clothes. Tony sees that Renny has a ticket to a Caribbean island. Tony leaves the airport and tells Gibbs that he must have missed Renny.