A tour group visiting a preserved building at Ellis Island finds a dead man who seemed to have hung himself, but the CSIs uncover that the man died about 8 hours ago, but managed to answer a call from his wife a few hours after his death, which confuses the team. However, when a crime on the other side of the city is similar to this one, and both cases have a compass lying next to the victims, the team suspects they are dealing with The Compass Killer.