The murder of a stage mom at a child beauty pageant sends the CSI team into the scary world of tiaras, wiglets, and mother-daughter competitors. The CSIs initially suspects the victim's husband and a particularly cutthroat stage mom, but when the latter's own daughter goes missing, evidence points to the perpetrator being the pageant organizer’s husband, a pedophile who uses the contest as a hunting ground. In a race to save the kidnapped girl, the CSIs turn to the teenage daughter of the murdered woman, a former child beauty pageant contestant who recalls her own past molestation at the hands of the perpetrator. The CSI team pieces together her account to identify where the perpetrator is holding his new victim, and in a final struggle with Horatio, the man commits suicide rather than face his crimes. Meanwhile, in a shocking twist, the stage mom’s murder is revealed to be the result of a fluke accident caused by her 6-year-old daughter.