Castle's P.I. business isn't exactly rife with compelling cases. Beckett's job, however, is full of drama. Anahita "Ana" Menendez was the star of a popular telenovela series. Esposito is a closet fan of the genre. The victim was found murdered in the alley outside her apartment building. She was struck in the head with a plumber's pipe. Ryan continues to fill the Castle void with a wild notion about a psychotic plumber. His theories still need a lot of work.
Francisco Herrara executive produces the show Ana worked on before she was killed. He says the victim had a bad incident with her assistant Marcus Segundo, who once attempted to strike her. Anahita's co-star, Sofia Del Cordova, seems more upset about the valuable missing purse she loaned to the victim than her death. Beckett steers her toward Castle to help her find the missing accessory, which happens to be worth a half million bucks.
Marcus Segundo, the angry ex-assistant, claims the attack he made on Ana was staged at the victim's request. It was her way of getting out of work for a spell. Castle learns that Ana went to the opera the night she was killed. Beckett already knew this. The two of them learn that Ana was slipped a USB drive at the event by a mysterious Middle Eastern woman. The victim left in a white stretch limo. The woman who slipped Ana the flash drive is Layla Nazif, daughter of a wealthy Arab official named Abdul Nazif.
Castle is totally getting into his private eye persona. Beckett is more than willing to dive into his new world. After all, she's just a girl looking for a private... Well, let's just say she's looking for a passionate payoff to a little role-playing fun. She's not going to get it. Sofia Del Cordova interrupts Castle and Beckett's interlude. She wants her purse back. She fires Castle. The termination is not accepted. Castle is determined to solve the case. He realizes that Ana left the purse inside the limo. Sofia is impressed. Castle is hired...again!
Castle poses as Ryan to track down the limo. He's locked in the back at gunpoint while snooping. Harlan Mathis, an ex-Marine, may be the hired gun who killed Ana. He's about to use a knife to get Castle to spill what he knows when Ryan and Espo storm in. Mathis claims he was to bring Ana to Abdul Nazif, but she refused to meet with him. He went to the victim's apartment, but she was already dead when he got there.
Ana ditched her purse outside the opera house before she got in the limo. Castle finds it. He realizes the purse isn't valuable at all. Sofia Del Cordova only wanted the USB drive. She points a gun at Castle demanding that he turn it over. That doesn't happen. Castle manages to disarm her. He's proud of this even after Espo breaks the news that Sofia got the drop on him with a prop gun.
The USB drive is actually an encrypted security link leading to a Swiss bank account with a hundred million bucks. Sofia says she and Ana were looking to create their own TV network with Layla Nazif as the primary investor. This would devastate the network on which the two ladies currently worked. It caused Francisco Herrara to snap and kill her. Case closed, but not before Esposito gets an autograph from his favorite telenovela star. As for Castle, his dramatic case ends with a long journey home with the dame of his dreams.