When Detectives Benson and Stabler arrive on the scene of a single murder, they discover two more dead bodies, those of Tisa Flores and Alejandro Reyes, in the apartment next door. They investigate Tisa's past and find that she was working at a strip club owned by a former Rockette, Birdie Sulloway. Birdie and her nephew Chet try to assist with the investigation, but when the prime suspect for the three murders suddenly dies, the detectives discover a vigilante with a violent past.

After an up-and-coming artist is brutally murdered in her apartment, Detectives Odafin Tutuola and Elliot Stabler link her death to another unsolved murder case. As they pursue the case further, they realize that these two murders have striking similarities to a string of murders by a mysterious serial killer that Detective Victor Moran has been following for months. Moran fights to keep his control over the case as Detectives Fin and Stabler struggle to find the killer.