The episode begins with some band exhorting the virtues of easy living as the camera pans around a pool so exclusive, it only lets in people who haven't heard of melanoma or sunscreen. The camera lingers over a parade of bikini-clad flesh so we can all ooh and ahh, and we get the impression that time is slipping on by as assorted beautiful people in varying states of undress lie down and get up from chaise lounges stationed by the pool. Gradually, everyone leaves as peak tanning hours dwindle, and a white-clad pool flunky is busy picking up the jet set's towels. As he walks by one cabana, he notices a woman prone on the lounge, her hat covering her head. As he walks over, we can all see that she's got the beginnings of a nuclear-grade sunburn. The guy tries to rouse her, and when he lifts her hat, whatever he sees causes him to recoil in disgust and drop the hat. Oh, like your hairdresser's never done that when you've come in for a trim.

Cut to Horatio and our friend John -- remember John? -- walking down the stairs to the pool, with Horatio saying smugly, "So nobody noticed anything?" "She turned and burned like everyone else around her," John replies. Who would have thought rich sunbathers had so much in common with rotisserie chickens? We learn that the last person to wait on Betty Bakes-a-lot did so at 2:30, and the entire shift of attendants is collected inside and awaiting the inevitable straw-man line of inquiry that passes for investigation on this show. We see the two men walk over as Speedle lifts his camera to take pictures. The camera flashes, and we're at the next scene.

Cut to John opining that Betty Bakes-a-lot looks like a dried roast. Horatio ignores that and leans down to tell everyone that she's got a bullet wound to the back of the head; it's hardly visible through her hair. Either that pool flunky had excellent vision or he's easily upset by curly hair. John asks if a sniper made the hit. What, and then the sniper shot the hat off the table and onto Betty Bakes-a-lot's head so that nobody would notice? Horatio points out a second wound, and theorizes that whoever shot this woman did so at close range. John asks, "Who would risk a murder like this in front of all these people in broad daylight?" Well, who would be dumb enough to take a sniper shot in front of all these people in broad daylight, Mister You-Think-A-Sniper-Did-It? The people at the poolside may look as though their pretty heads could barely read the SPF on a bottle of sunscreen, but they'd sure as hell notice a gunshot. Anyway, Horatio thinks that the shooter is someone who wanted to make the murder public. John says, "The guy's got to be crazy." Horatio puts on his sunglasses and replies, "Not that crazy. He got our attention."