Grissom suspects murder when the body of a dwarf is found hanging from a rope high above a stage in a casino hotel where a convention of little people is being held. Across town, Catherine is attacked at a crime scene where a man was murdered during what appears to have been a home robbery.

Fifteen years ago, Catherine helped put a man on death row for the rape and murder of a coed at a nearby college. The man is about to be executed when he's granted a stay based on new DNA evidence. When bodies turn up at the school, killed in identical manners, it's thought the killer might actually be on the loose.