The body of a homeless woman is found in a drainage ditch. There’s a fresh incision across her abdomen. Her pancreas had been harvested, the M.E. said, with surgical precision. When other homeless people begin to disappear, Ellen is concerned.

While Tobias is visiting his buddies at the shelter near Skid Row, a gang shootout erupts on the street in front of the shelter. One of the guns used in the shootout is a Russian-made assault weapon. How does that weapon find its way into the hands of an L.A. gangbanger?

When Tobias’ homeless friend, Lucinda, explains that two of her friends are missing. Tobias looks into it and soon discovers that he and Ellen are working the same case. When Tobias’ warehouse is firebombed and a thug shows up at Ellen’s home to warn her off the case, she and Tobias know they’re getting close.

But there is still the matter of the Russian assault weapons. Tobias needs to do something about that. And just when it seems that things could not get worse, they do–Ellen and Elzbeth discover who the big, not-so-bright custodian at the D.A.‘s office is.