Pride is called to a hotel room in the middle of the night at the request of an old friend, Army Colonel Sam Nilsen. Navy Lt. Rebecca Peterson mysteriously dropped dead while in the room of General Owen Matthews, who is up for a position at Homeland Security, and Nilsen wants to keep the investigation discrete.

Loretta determines that Rebecca was poisoned with arsenic, and the general was also affected. The team's investigation reveals that she was poisoned at work, though they are frustrated by Col. Nilsen's interference in the name of keeping the situation under wraps for General Matthews.

Furious when evidence comes to light that the general was having an affair with Rebecca, which he had specifically denied, Pride brings him in for questioning over Nilsen's objections. Matthews reveals that he was actually helping Rebecca investigate massive fraud she'd uncovered at the Port of New Orleans, with companies billing the Navy for millions of dollars for no actual work being done.

The team takes down a contactor just before he manages to poison Brody, too. Unfortunately, someone slips him arsenic in prison, and he dies a gruesome death before he can reveal the involvemen of any other parties.

Nilsen is also aghast and furious when the press reports the salacious story of a Navy lieutenant dying in the hotel room of a general in the middle of the night.