Detectives Goren and Eames investigate the murder of a paroled bank robber, killed only two days after he was released from Sing Sing prison. During the investigation, Goren and Eames visit the victim's sister, Charlotte Fielding, and her boyfriend, Gerry Rankin, a mysterious man living a double life. Rankin leads everyone to believe that he is an economist for the United Nations, but the UN tells the NYPD that they have no knowledge of him. As the detectives close in on the suspect, they find that everyone involved in the case has been living a delusion, but that Charlotte's brother knew the truth. Although Rankin desperately wants the approval of his children, Goren suspects that he may also be planning to kill them, and must talk him out of it, by convincing him that they see him as a hero.