Ash and Dee Dee are conducting surveillance on a New Jersey tattoo parlor called “Tattoos While U Wait” (100). Their target is the owner, Damien Gorse. Dee Dee belongs to a cult called “the Shining Truth,” where she’s known by the name Holly. Ash expresses his disdain for the cult and wishes that Dee Dee would leave it.

Ash ambushes Damien in the parking lot as he’s leaving for the night, shooting him twice in the chest. While Ash stages the scene as a robbery and Dee Dee observes, a young employee exits the back of the parlor and sees Dee Dee’s face. The witness flees back inside and triggers a loud alarm. To eliminate the witness, Ash enters the parlor, finds him hiding in a closet, and shoots him in the head.

In the basement, Simon sees Rocco carry the wounded Luther away as everyone else flees. Police officers and emergency medical technicians arrive and rush Ingrid to the hospital. Simon calls his sister-in-law, Yvonne Previdi, asking her to get Anya. Simon tells Yvonne not to call Sam because he has a biology test, but Yvonne overrules him and says that Robert will get Sam.

At the hospital, Detective Fagbenle questions Simon, suggesting that either he or Ingrid may have killed Aaron to protect Paige. Fagbenle reveals that the police have captured Luther. Anya arrives just as a doctor emerges to give Simon an update on his wife’s condition.

A doctor informs Simon that Ingrid is alive but is in a coma; the next 24 hours will be critical. Detective Fagbenle asks Simon to formally identify Luther. Luther denies shooting anyone, claiming that Simon and Ingrid shot him.

In Ingrid’s hospital room, Yvonne urges Simon to continue searching for Paige, arguing that Ingrid would want him to find their daughter rather than wait by her bedside. Convinced, Simon agrees to resume the search, entrusting Yvonne to care for their children and manage his business.

Simon returns to the Bronx and meets with Cornelius. Upon learning that Cornelius is a former Marine, Simon realizes that he was the gunman who shot Luther to save his and Ingrid’s lives. Cornelius opens a safe and hands one of two handguns to Simon, keeping the other for himself. 

Simon and Cornelius go to the Judge Lester Patterson Houses, a large housing complex, and confront Rocco at his mother’s apartment. Rocco admits that a badly beaten Paige came to him for drugs, but he refused because she had no money. Simon offers Rocco $50,000 to find Paige. Back at Cornelius’s apartment, Simon tries to return the gun. However, Cornelius tells him to keep it.

A neighbor named Miss Sobek reports that a woman has broken into Paige’s sealed apartment. They go upstairs and find a woman who introduces herself as Elena Ramirez, a private investigator from Chicago who’s also looking for Paige. Elena tells them that she’s searching for Henry Thorpe and that Paige was in contact with him before he disappeared. She doesn’t know the content of these communications. However, she has traced the IP address from Paige’s last email to Amherst College. Simon and Elena agree to work together.

Back at the hospital, Simon’s son, Sam, confesses that Paige visited him at Amherst College two weeks ago. Desperate for drug money, she stole laptops and wallets from Sam and his roommate and then vanished.

Elena tells Simon to attend Aaron’s memorial service to look for leads, while she heads to a New Jersey tattoo parlor that Henry also contacted.

Simon arrives at the Corval Inn and Family Tree Farm in Connecticut, the site of Aaron’s memorial service. He goes to the family’s private cemetery plot, where Aaron’s father, Wiley Corval, confronts him and angrily tells him to leave. During the service, Simon observes that Aaron’s stepmother, Enid Corval, appears strangely detached from the other mourners.

Afterward, Simon follows Enid as she drives away from the inn to a biker bar. There, she confirms that she’s Aaron’s stepmother. Simon shows her a photo of the missing Henry Thorpe, but she doesn’t recognize him. When Simon asks about Aaron’s biological mother, Enid claims not to know whether she’s alive or dead before inviting him to a private booth to continue their conversation.

Elena arrives at the “Tattoos While U Wait” parlor in New Jersey to find that it’s an active crime scene. The lead detective, Nap Dumas, informs her that two people were murdered the previous night: the owner, Damien Gorse, and an 18-year-old employee, Ryan Bailey. The police believe it was a robbery gone wrong.

Nap theorizes that the killer shot Damien, was spotted by Ryan, and then killed Ryan to silence him. Elena tentatively suggests that Ryan’s killing may not fit the profile of the person she’s tracking since a professional would have worn a mask and had no need to silence the witness. After spotting a computer on the counter, she asks to examine it, knowing it was used to communicate with her missing person, Henry Thorpe.