Contains spoilers for this episode and earlier episodes.
Assigned to Baltimore’s marine unit, Jimmy McNulty finds a woman’s body in the harbour. He studies tide charts and sends a report that places the case inside city jurisdiction, frustrating Major Rawls. The reassignment isolates McNulty from homicide work, while Kima Greggs has a desk job and Cedric Daniels is stuck in the evidence room. Bunk Moreland asks McNulty to locate Omar Little for Bird’s trial, but he cannot find him.
At the docks, Frank Sobotka argues over whether the union should pursue canal dredging or settle for grain-pier repairs. He wants more work for the stevedores and has begun dealing with a contact called the Greek. He asks nephew Nick to handle a container and confronts son Ziggy over losing one. Meanwhile, the Barksdale crew faces a supply problem after its New York connection is arrested. Stringer tells Avon that suppliers fear dealing with them, while Valchek resents Frank’s union donation to a church.
At the docks, Beadie Russell notices a broken customs seal on a container and opens it. Inside, she finds thirteen dead young women and calls for help. Frank and the stevedores gather as police arrive, turning the illicit shipment he helped hide into a murder investigation. The discovery is the episode’s closing event, linking McNulty’s harbour case to the dockworkers’ operation.