Detective Goren matches wits and moves with a paranoid but murderous chess grandmaster after a newly engaged woman is found slain and tossed in a garbage bin -- but Goren believes the killing might be a case of mistaken identity and finds links to a wealthy family and a pimp. Edging closer, Goren and Detective Eames study the passenger manifest on the victim's recent flight and they discover the curious zig-zag path of one disturbed man who is later discovered to be a famous chess prodigy-turned-fugitive now intent on blackmailing his family for money.

The murder of a corrections officer points the Major Case squad toward a corrupt Brooklyn prison where unaccounted-for prisoners are secretly abused by guards -- and the key to exposing the ring lies with a prison nurse whose boyfriend is the maverick Detective Mike Logan. As Logan warily aids Detectives Goren and Eames in their probe, they discover an unseemly political connection and ultimately must jeopardize their lives inside the forboding walls.