Anne Ellis and Bernard Jackson, two art authenticators, are found dead; one has been hanged and the other shot in the chest. Initial evidence indicates a murder-suicide, and the investigation leads Goren and Eames to a forged Claude Monet painting. The detectives suspect German art gallery owner Rudy Langer, who implicates a female forger but will not name her. Goren discovers that the forger is Sylvia Moon, a former student of Jackson's, whose art-school roommate committed suicide by hanging herself. After confronting Moon and Langer at the murder scene, Moon reveals that Langer killed Jackson, and confesses to helping him kill Ellis.